Be Subject and Suffer for the Lord's Sake
Download MP3Earlier this week, I was trying to figure out how to introduce this passage, I had this great idea. I wanted you to turn to your neighbor and just say, hey, what do you do you think about January 6? So if you could turn no, just kidding. What what do you think about DEI training? What do you think about trans athletes in in sports?
Caleb Chancey:What do you think about the Epstein files? You want me to keep going? No? I realized pretty early on I better not. But if you wrestle with any of those things, if any anxiety started to boil up in your heart, then I think that this passage has something to say to you and to me.
Caleb Chancey:Verses thirteen and fourteen say, be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. We don't like to submit. We don't like being told what to do. That is the nature of sin. We don't want a king over us.
Caleb Chancey:We want to be king. We want to decide for ourselves what is good and evil and what it is that we are to do. So I wanna ask you this morning that as we pray that you would ask the Lord for the proper humility to hear from him whatever it is that he would have to say to you and I would ask that you would pray the same for me. So let's pray together. Our father, second Timothy tells us that all scripture is God breathed and is profitable for teaching, for correction, for reproof, for training in righteousness, that the man or the woman of God might be mature and equipped for every good work and that means that this passage is breathed out for you by you too for our good.
Caleb Chancey:So humble us, humble me, I pray that we might hear from you because that's why we're here. Your name and your renown, those are the desires of our hearts. So Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight and may you speak to your children. Words of comfort, words of love, words of life, words of rebuke, but all words that would point to our ultimate hope in you Jesus, our king of kings. We pray these things in the name of the father, son, and holy spirit.
Caleb Chancey:Amen. At the beginning of the book of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar, he has besieged Jerusalem and it has been a brutal siege. And then he conquers it and he hauls Daniel and his friends some 900 miles away to Babylon in exile. And these elect exiles, they had every worldly reason to despair, every worldly reason to doubt God's power or his presence in Babylon. But Daniel and his friends knew better.
Caleb Chancey:They knew that Babylon hadn't conquered Israel because Babylon was stronger. They knew that God was the sovereign king over the entire universe and that he was working out his purposes to his own ends, that Nebuchadnezzar may have proclaimed himself the most powerful man in all of the earth, but he only ruled at God's good pleasure. Nebuchadnezzar's reign, it lasted for a moment, but God's reign is eternal. Nebuchadnezzar's power was limited, but God's was unlimited. And not only did these elect exiles have every worldly reason to doubt God's power and presence, they had every worldly reason to hate their Babylonian captors and rulers.
Caleb Chancey:I mean, after all, they had seen their friends, their family members killed. They had witnessed their countrymen starved to death and they had been carted off from the only home they'd ever known to serve this enemy nation. But instead of working against the Babylonians, time and time again, Daniel and his friends, they bless those who persecute them. They overcome evil with good. And these elect exiles, they had every reason to want to fight, to retreat from, or to assimilate into Babylonian culture like Conor talked about last week.
Caleb Chancey:Assimilation, it was certainly Nebuchadnezzar's goal. I mean, we we read in Daniel one, verse five that Daniel and his friends were to be educated for three years in Babylonian history, astronomy, medicine, myth, and magic. And not only that, they were given new names. For example, Azariah whose name means Yahweh is my helper was told that his new name was Abednego, servant of the God Ngo. The Babylonians were doing everything they could to break apart Israelite culture, to turn these Israelites into Babylonians.
Caleb Chancey:But how do these elect exiles respond? Does Azariah refuse to be known by the name of a pagan god? No. Does Daniel say you're not gonna make me learn your revisionist history where you twist the facts to fit your chosen narrative to achieve your political and religious ends? No.
Caleb Chancey:Neither do they plot a revolution or retreat and form their own holy huddle. Now, Daniel and his friends, they did not doubt God's power and presence, they did not hide from nor fight an anti biblical culture and they did not hate their Babylonian rulers. Instead, as elect exiles, they trusted in God, the ruler of heaven and earth, the king of all kings, and they freely served the Babylonians for the Lord's sake, trusting that it was the Lord who had placed them there, and for the sake of their witness, recognizing that their exile was not just for them, but that God through them might make his name great among the nations. Last week, if you were here, Connor shared that faithful exiles must remember their identity, their mission, and their conduct. That we are called to live such courageous and compelling lives that even when others accuse us of doing evil, they will see our good deeds and glorify God.
Caleb Chancey:And this morning, we are going to look at what it means to live as elect exiles in the real world, particularly as we relate to our earthly authorities. And then next week, Joel is gonna share what it looks like to live as an elect exile in our marriages. We're gonna start this morning in verse 16 and then make our way back through the text. So if you would look with me at first Peter two verse 16. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover up for evil, but living as servants of God.
Caleb Chancey:At the beginning of verse 16, Peter says, live as free people, and then at the end, he says, living as servants of God. We're meant to see these ideas as connected. Peter is essentially saying, we are free because we are servants of God. Our identity is that of free servants, which on its face sounds like a contradiction in terms because our freedom, at least freedom as our culture defines it, we only understand it in negative terms. Freedom means being able to do whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want, being whoever you want to be without any obligation or boundary or constraint.
Caleb Chancey:But the truth is there is no such thing as negative freedom. A goldfish might might believe that freedom is found on the floor outside the bowl, but it only leads to death. Thomas is one of the best piano players that I know, but if he decides to play in a different key than the rest of the band, it's only gonna sound like chaos. That's not freedom. Freedom means finding and living within the right constraints.
Caleb Chancey:And in stark contrast to our culture's definition of freedom, the bible teaches us that unconditional obedience to God is the only true water our souls can swim in. Full obedience to God is the only place where real freedom is found. Everything else leads to death. Paul puts it this way in Galatians five, he says, for freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to the book of slavery.
Caleb Chancey:Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. This is very similar to what Peter says in verse 16. And what this means is that our freedom from sin is not freedom to sin. Our liberty is not license. We have been set free.
Caleb Chancey:Free to do what? Free now to obey God. We are now free to live as we were created and redeemed to live under the proper constraints as obedient children before God, as free servants of God, fulfilling our calling as his witnesses in this fallen world in part by living out verses 13 through 17. Peter says, be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to the 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.
Caleb Chancey:Now, this word translated be subject in verse 13, in case you were like me trying to figure out a way to wiggle out from under it, it refers to a soldier's submission to his commanding officer. Therefore, it is virtually synonymous with obedience. And this word institution, almost everywhere else it is translated in scripture, it's translated creation, as in something that God himself created and ordained. The good news is that because we are called to be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, we don't have to submit to our future AI overlords. That is not what this passage is saying.
Caleb Chancey:We are free to rebel against them to the end. The difficult news is that our problem is not understanding what be subject means, it's in doing what it says. But what do we do if we live in a world where our earthly authorities do not punish those who do evil and praise those who do good, but instead do the opposite? What do we do when our earthly authorities don't encourage the things that God loves, but instead actively encourage the things that God hates? Well, as Joel reminded us when we started our series in first Peter, the emperor that Peter is most likely referring to here is Nero.
Caleb Chancey:Nero was a crazy, tyrannical, megalomaniac. He he's a man who murdered his own mother, at least two of his wives, who made his horse a senator, and then he used Christians as the scapegoat for the fire that he most likely started that burned down three fourths of Rome itself. The Roman historian Tacitus recorded the cruelty that followed. He wrote, mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished or were nailed to crosses or were doomed to the flames and burnt to serve as a nightly illumination when the daylight had expired.
Caleb Chancey:Now, let's be honest for a second. It would have been really easy for these persecuted believers to think this governmental system is completely corrupt. That leader is a monster. We don't owe them anything. So we should either get out of here while we still can or we should arm now to put up a fight.
Caleb Chancey:And then Peter's letter arrives and it says, be subject. Are you kidding me? Peter tells these believers to submit and to obey to the very government that was organizing persecution against them, and if Peter can say these words under the power of the Holy Spirit to a church suffering under Nero, if he can say, be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, honor the emperor, what does that mean for us? It doesn't mean that there aren't times that we shouldn't resist. But whatever time you're thinking of, it probably isn't that.
Caleb Chancey:It means that we are to honor the government, we are to honor its leaders, we are to pray for them. It means that you and I have no excuse for the often disrespectful, dehumanizing, or demeaning ways that we talk about our earthly authorities. Hear me, we do not honor them or submit to them republican, democrat, or anything else under the sun because they are worthy in of themselves or because we agree with the decisions they make. No. What does Peter say?
Caleb Chancey:He says very explicitly, be subject for the Lord's sake. And that phrase makes all the difference because we are here serving at the good pleasure of the king of kings. We are elect exiles. We are free servants in a world that is not our home, and therefore, we can freely honor and submit to our leaders no matter how terrible their character or how terrible their decisions may be because we recognize that God is with us and that God is ultimately in charge. He is accomplishing his purposes no matter what the world looks like.
Caleb Chancey:This means we don't have to be afraid if the culture or the government seems not to be going our way because God's plans have never been decided by a vote. God's plans have never been decided by a court decision, an executive order, or an act of congress. Whatever authority these earthly authorities might temporarily have, their power is limited. God's is unlimited. Their reign is for a moment and God's is eternal.
Caleb Chancey:So as free servants in exile whose ultimate home is in heaven, we freely submit for the Lord's sake and for the sake of our witness. As Peter says, for this is the will of God that by doing good, you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. I don't know about you, but I love putting people to silence by my clever witty retorts. I want them to come at me and I want to say something clever that they don't have anything left to say. What is Peter saying?
Caleb Chancey:That the world should be put to silence by the weight of our good deeds. That they might come after us and accuse us, but then look at all the good that we are doing. Look at how good of citizens we are, and realize they have nothing left to say, that there should be so much good work done by the church that the world can't help but notice. Sometimes doing good and bearing witness does require resistance. I mean, in this very city in 1963, the reverend Fred Shuttlesworth invited Martin Luther King Junior and the leaders of the SCLC to come to Birmingham to protest segregation.
Caleb Chancey:And in response, the Alabama State Court issued an injunction an injunction barring all civil rights demonstrations and protests and marches without a permit, which Shuttlesworth and King knew they would never get. So they were left with this choice, do we obey our earthly authorities or disobey and be arrested? These brothers, they prayed and they trusted in the power and the presence of God, and on Good Friday nineteen sixty three, they marched and they were promptly arrested. And as doctor King sat in solitary confinement in a jail just a couple of blocks from here, He penned what is probably the most famous document in the whole civil rights movement, his letter from a Birmingham Jail. And in it, he writes, one may well ask, how can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?
Caleb Chancey:The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws, just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with San Agustin that an unjust law is no law at all.
Caleb Chancey:A just law is a man made code that squares with the law of God. An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in the eternal law. You see, King and Shuttlesworth, they trusted in the power and the presence of God and they knew the law of God and so they followed the example that we see over and over again in scripture. Jewish midwives refusing to kill their baby boys under pharaoh's command. Shadrach, Meshach, and yes, Abednego, refusing to bow down before the golden image of the ruler of their land.
Caleb Chancey:And why did they feel free to disobey these earthly authorities? Because as Peter responded to the high priest in Acts chapter five, he said, we must obey God rather than man. Peter tells the high priest, there is an authority over you and my allegiance, my worship, my love, my trust, my fear, it ultimately belongs to him and you only rule at his good pleasure. But this this is incredibly important. There's there's this moment in the gospels where a lawyer comes up to Jesus and he says, what is the greatest commandment?
Caleb Chancey:Remember what Jesus said? He said, love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And the second, he wasn't asked that, the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. In other words, you can't truly love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength without also loving your neighbor as your selves. So the principle is this, because you are free servants, because you are under obligation to no earthly authority, we are to freely submit to our earthly authorities except when our obedience to an earthly king would be disobedience to the king of kings or a failure to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Caleb Chancey:We are to obey our earthly authorities except when obedience to an earthly king would be disobedience to the king of kings or a failure to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. When doctor King and Shuttlesworth and others engaged in the civil disobedience in the city, they earnestly believed that their disobedience to these earthly authorities was not just honoring to God's holy law, it was also love to their neighbors, to these very people who were persecuting them. And by God's grace, the Lord used the efforts servants, of these elect exiles to bring about such profound good that the whole world had no choice but to take notice and wonder about the hope that was in them. Peter says, honor everyone. Love the brotherhood.
Caleb Chancey:We have a specific duty to love and serve first the church. Fear God. Honor the emperor. The emperor is to be honored, but in the Roman Empire, he was worshiped as a god. So in saying honor everyone, honor the emperor, Peter is doing something really subtle and subversive here.
Caleb Chancey:He's saying, yes, give honor to the emperor, but the emperor too is just a man. The emperor too is one under authority. Not only that, God gets fear, he gets worship, he gets absolute allegiance, and the emperor gets honor, the respect and dignity due to his office. Peter is telling the church just like Jesus did, yes, give the government its respect. Pay your taxes, but don't give it your soul.
Caleb Chancey:Don't give it your worship and your fear. And far too often, our conversations about politics are marked by that word. They're marked by fear. We treat every election like it's going to be life and death instead of remembering that our God reigns unrivaled on his throne. Far too often, we talk about the other side as though they were the enemy.
Caleb Chancey:Instead of seeking to love and serve them, rescuing or recognizing that they are under the dominion of darkness and need the good news of the gospel to be brought into the kingdom of the Son of God. Far too often, we care more about winning than we do our witness and how does that reflect on our savior? So let me ask you a couple of questions searched my heart this week in hopes that they might search yours. If you voted for this current administration, are you willing to criticize it or own it when they do something wrong or something out of keeping with God's moral law? If you didn't vote for this administration, are you willing to acknowledge it and own it when they do something good or in keeping with God's moral law?
Caleb Chancey:Or what about a few years ago when the shoe was on the other foot? How about this? Are you willing to overlook lies, hypocrisy, moral failings, or corruption on your side that you would never excuse from the other side? Ignoring evil or corruption in your preferred party or your preferred politician, it will destroy your soul and it will do it all the more quickly if when it's pointed out, your first response is, well, what about? God doesn't deal in what abouts.
Caleb Chancey:All sin is rebellion against a holy God, and the only way that any sin can be forgiven is because Jesus himself was willing to bleed and to die on a cross that it could be forgiven. No sin is excusable, but by the blood of Jesus, praise God, any and every sin can be forgiven. I know I'm stepping on some toes here, but I don't want you to misunderstand me. I'm not saying that republicans and democrats are equally wrong about all things, nor am I promoting some middle third way. I'm not saying that elections don't matter or that all voting choices are equal, not at all.
Caleb Chancey:You can choose who to vote for, you can choose to belong to a political party, but as a believer in Jesus, you cannot choose between loving the unborn and loving the poor. You cannot choose between justice and mercy. You cannot choose between truth and love. Instead, recognizing that we are elect exiles here and that our citizenship is in heaven. We don't have to run and hide from the culture.
Caleb Chancey:We don't have to assimilate. We don't have to try to force Jesus onto his throne of I'm gonna try that again. We don't try to put Jesus on the throne of our secular government as if he needed us to do so by manipulation or force, using the world's means to accomplish what we think to be kingdom ends. No. In the words of N.
Caleb Chancey:T. Wright, we're to be a small working model of the new creation, free servants who know that God is with us, who know that God is all powerful, who know that we have a future undefiled, unfading, and kept in heaven for us, and that one day, heaven itself is going to come to earth. And so we freely serve God, we freely subject ourselves for the Lord's sake and for the sake of our witness. We work for the good of our neighbor here because our hope is there. While we don't have much time to cover it this morning, Peter, he takes the same principles and applies them to the workplace.
Caleb Chancey:In verse 18, he says, servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and the gentle, but also to the unjust. This means honor your boss. It means do good work. It means don't grumble and complain. Don't quiet quit, but recognize that you are serving the Lord in your job.
Caleb Chancey:Work hard at your job for the Lord's sake, not for the sake of man, not because your boss deserves it, because your work is a witness to what you worship. And if your boss tells you to disobey God or God's moral law, if he tells you to lie or to cheat or any number of unethical things, you are obligated by the law of God to resist and not do that thing. So that if when you do good and suffer for it, Peter tells us that this is a gracious thing, literally a grace in the sight of God because suffering is one of the hallmarks of our calling as God's people. As Peter says in 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 footsteps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
Caleb Chancey:When he was reviled, he did not revile in return, and when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. So how in the world do we live like this in a broken fallen world? World? How do we freely serve, submit, and suffer without drowning in anger, resentment, rebellion, or self pity? By fixing our eyes on the suffering servant who went before us, the one who walked into exile.
Caleb Chancey:Peter, he takes the familiar words of Isaiah 53 and he applies them directly to Jesus. He says, he committed no sin. This means that we must never let sin be the cause or the result of our suffering. If you get fired from your job because you did poor work or you were lazy, you deserve it. There is no spiritual credit in that, but if you are sinned against and refuse to sin in return, you witness to your sinless savior.
Caleb Chancey:No deceit was found in his mouth. The religious leaders, they poured out slanderous lies against the king of kings, but he never once spoke lies in return. If he had been willing even once to hide the fact that he was the son of God or the Messiah, he could have avoided the cross. But Jesus valued the truth and he valued you and me more than he valued holding on to his own life. And when he was reviled, he did not revile in return.
Caleb Chancey:This means it's not be humble until humility stops working. Oh, it's bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not ever ever ever curse them. It's do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with endless amounts of doing good in Jesus' name. He did not threaten.
Caleb Chancey:Remember when Peter pulled a sword in Gethsemane, Jesus' hands, they didn't immediately reach for a sword to join him. Instead, he was led out like a lamb to the slaughter. His hands were stretched out and and pierced with nails. He didn't pick up a sword and hurl it at the Roman soldiers. He let his side be thrust through with a spear.
Caleb Chancey:And he continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. This means that our ultimate allegiance to God, it doesn't mean that things are always gonna go our way or the way that we want them to. In Hebrews 11, we're told that, you know, some of these heroes of the faith, some of them shut the mouths of lions, some of them put foreign armies to flight. I wanna be one of those guys, and some of them were sawn in two. Entrusting ourselves to the king of kings does not mean that everything in this life is gonna go the way that we want it to.
Caleb Chancey:It does not mean that we will see justice on this side, but justice will one day come. He will come on a white horse and his name is faithful and true. How do we not run from culture, assimilate or to fight? We remember that the world's power is limited, but Jesus' is unlimited. And no matter who is in charge, their reign is but for a moment and his is forever.
Caleb Chancey:And though he had every authority in heaven and on earth, Jesus himself, the king of kings, he took the form of a servant and he became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee would bow and every tongue would confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. For as Mark ten forty five tells us, for the son of man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus is not just our example going before us in suffering, he is, praise God, our substitute. As Peter says, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, that by his wounds, you have been healed. That he was pierced for our transgressions.
Caleb Chancey:He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. Instead of fighting his enemies, Jesus died for them. He died for you and for me that we who were far off might be brought near. That we who had no hope before the God of the universe might be welcomed in as co heirs, the very sons and daughters of God.
Caleb Chancey:Because Jesus himself went through the ultimate exile, death itself, taking upon himself a death that you and I deserve to die so that we could know that if we believe in him, we will never perish, but we will dwell with him forever, living at peace with God and man for all of eternity. Church, let us remember and rejoice in what Jesus has done for us in order that we might freely serve him and our neighbor to the glory of God that by all means we might win some. One of the ways that we remember and we rejoice in what Jesus has done and what he has promised is by coming to this table. We remember that on the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread and he broke it. He said, this is my body which is for you.
Caleb Chancey:Scripture tells us that in the same way he took the cup, he said, this cup is for you and for many. Cup is the covenant in my blood which is poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. The apostle Paul would later tell us that as often as we eat of this bread and drink from this cup, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Surely he is coming again soon. Amen, church?
Caleb Chancey:Here's how we're going to celebrate communion together this morning. We're gonna start with the balconies and then we're gonna make our way from the back to the front. You'll break off a piece of this bread, you'll dip it in the wine and it's non alcoholic wine, you'll hear these words, this is the body of Christ which is for you and his blood just shed for you. I also have, gluten free options here at the table, but please if you receive those, wait to hear the words of instruction. Then you'll return to your seats using these outer aisles.
Caleb Chancey:This table is open to anyone and everyone who has trusted that Jesus lived, died and rose again for your sake, that you had no hope, that Jesus did everything necessary to reconcile you and redeem you and to bring you to God. So if you have confessed your sins and you have confessed Jesus as your Lord, come to this table and rejoice. And if you haven't, come find me, come find one of our staff members, come find one of our elders, we would love to pray with you and talk about what it means to surrender to the only king who will not crush you but was crushed instead for you. Let's go to him now in prayer. Father, I pray for my brothers and sisters here that if there was anything that I said that wasn't from you, I pray that you would give them the grace to just ignore it or forget it.
Caleb Chancey:But if there is something that you intended to say to them, I pray that by the power of your Holy Spirit, it would do its work in their hearts, that all of us, would ask that you would pry our idols from our hands, that we would submit and surrender to you, the king of kings and lord of lords, the one who loved us enough to live the life of righteousness that we owed you, to die the death on the cross that we deserved to die and it rose again on the third day that we might know that every word of love you ever spoke to us is true. We love you, Jesus, and we pray these things in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
