Sermon: To God's Church (1 Corinthians 1:-1-3)

I have finally settled on a book to preach through.  I was originally looking at trying to spend a year in the Old Testament and highlight some of the major stories.  But on my heart was 1 Corinthians.  Because the more I prayed and the more I thought about us, our church—1 Corinthians seemed like the place we need to go.  

So here is the plan as of right now.  We will go through 1 Corinthians together (it will be our main text) and when we start reading the Bible together in April, if s subject or story grabs me or interest you we can cover it.  

Why Corinthians?  First I have always been drawn to the letter for some reason.  I think it is reflective of the church today and especially the church in America…in some ways.  But mainly when we look at our church we have many new believers and we have experienced some pains from change.  As we move forward it is and will be important to avoid the mistakes made by the Corinthian church.  So what do we know about the Corinthians.  

Introduction to 1 Corinthians

We know that is was an important trade center for the Romans. It was destroyed by them in 146 BC and a century later refounded as a Roman colony.  Because of its geographical position, merchants and sailors would send goods through the city because it was safer than navigating the water around Achaia.  The city was busy and people from all over passed through it.  With them came goods, but also ideas, different religious practices.  

It had a reputation as being a city where any goes.  There were lush fields around the city were grapes grew and there was famous Isthmus games held nearby.  It was an important city, prosperous, and morally corrupt city.  

One writer said this about Corinth:  “The ideal of the Corinthian was the reckless development of the individual.  The merchant who made his gain by all and every means, the man of pleasure surrendering himself to every lust, the athlete steeled to every bodily exercise and proud in his physical strength, are the true Corinthian types:  in a word the man who recognized no superior and no law but his own desires.”   

This is where a Christian church had been established and Paul spent roughly 18 months there helping it get started.  When he came to the city (Acts 18) he first spoke in the Synagogue were the Jewish believers asked him to leave.  Paul being who he was set up shop right next door to the house “Titius Justus, a worshiper of God.” (Acts 18:7), where he preached to the Gentiles and the church grew.  Even “Crispus, the synagogue ruler, and his entire household believed in the Lord; and many of the Corinthians who heard him believed and were baptized.” (Acts 18:8).  

After he left he visited the church once more for sure and he wrote them four different letters, two of which we have in our Bibles, and no one has ever found the other two.So what do we know about the church itself.  It was a large church—many Corinthians had converted to Christ.  It was full cliques and snobs, materialism had taken root in the church.  It had both the very rich and the very poor.  At fellowship meals the rich kept to themselves and the poor were left alone.  

There was little church discipline and a very lax attitude about morals and doctrine.  Members took part in the pagan religion around them, many of the religions were sexual in nature.  They were unwilling to submit to authority, even Paul’s ‘credentials’ were questioned.  There was a lack of humility and consideration for others.  Members were taking each other to court and other members were flaunting there new found freedom in Christ, regardless of the effects on fellow-believers.  

They were abusing and ignoring gifts of the Spirit, the church in Corinth was a mess.  They were not walking in a matter worthy of their calling and were spiritually weak.  Paul addresses these issues and more in this letter. 

Paul starts this letter by establishes himself and the church as a whole, he is going to remind them who He is and who they are.    

     

Paul Called

“Paul, called as an apostle of Christ Jesus by God's will, and Sosthenes our brother:  2  To God's church at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus and called as saints, with all those in every place who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord--both their Lord and ours.  3  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”  (1 Corinthians 1:1-3) 

Paul first established his calling as an apostle of Christ, by Christ’s will and not his own.  He is reminding them of his calling who he was in Christ.  This was important because some of the believers actually questioned if Paul was an apostle at all.  He was going to address issues in the church and he was reminding them of his authority, an authority that came from Christ himself.

But he was also reminding them of a common link between them.  They were in Christ as He was in Christ.  Called by Christ, saved by Christ, baptized in Christ, “There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to one hope at your calling--  5  one Lord, one faith, one baptism,  6  one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:4-6).  

   

To God’s Church (v.2)

“To God's church at Corinth, Paul again is reminding them that it isn’t their church in Corinth, but God’s church.  That they belong to the entire body of Christ and there is only one body.  

   

          -Sanctified and Called

They were sanctified by Christ himself, set apart and made holy through the cross.  Christ who also sanctified them, called them as saints (the set apart ones) or (it’s the same word for holy).   Then Paul drives this point home by finishing the verse with these words, “with all those in every place who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord--both their Lord and ours.”

Grace to You (v.3)

Paul closes the opening remarks with verse 3 “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Paul reminds the reader everything is grace, they do not deserve anything from God and yet He loves us.  

“It was by grace we were saved, But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us,  5  made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!  6  Together with Christ Jesus He also raised us up and seated us in the heavens,  7  so that in the coming ages He might display the immeasurable riches of His grace through His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.  8  For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God's gift—“  (Ephesians 2:4-8)  

None of the Corinthian church deserved grace, but he not only gives them grace but He also give peace, or shalom in the Hebrew.   

          -Peace from God

It was through Christ sacrifice that the church had peace with God.  No longer were they enemies of God and objects of judgment and wrath, but now were at peace with God, having received mercy, in that God didn’t give them what they did deserve, but gave them salvation and peace through Christ.  So what does this mean for us today?   

You are God’s Church

Firstly and most importantly you are God’s church.  First Baptist Church of Rocklin is God’s church and is not Pastor Steve’s church and it doesn’t belong to any of you either.

The church is not a physical building; it is the people who make up the church.  We have been given a building and we have a responsibility to be good stewards of what God has given to us and we should care for it to the best of our abilities.  

But we must keep in mind that if some terrible event was to blow these buildings down, or if somehow the property was taken from us and we were all evicted, we would still be a church.  It is the body of believers who make up the body of Christ. 

This means we are also part of a larger body….the body of Christ, which is spread out over the entire world.  It means when the one part of the body suffers the whole body suffers.  When Islamic gunmen riddle a church with bullets while it is in a prayer service in Nigeria, killing ten people this last week it affects us all.  

We are the church and we work together to share the message of Christ with the world.      

   

You are God’s Sanctified and Called

You are called by God, saved and sanctified by the precious blood of Christ.  Therefore walk worthy of the calling you have received.  Put away the sins that so easily ensnare you, put away course talking, sexual sin, indulging every fleshly desire, materialism, think about others before you exercise your ‘freedom.” Think of other more than yourselves.  Walk in love as Christ walked in love, imitate Christ, love as Christ.  

Understand the effects of your sin, your behavior reflects on the entire body of Christ.  People will make judgments about Christianity by the way you live your life.  People are watching! 

Understand who you are in Christ.  You are not your own--you were bought with a price.  You have been made an heir to a throne an heir with Christ.

What you do, how you live your life in front of others reflects on Christ himself, the same Christ who loved you and gave His life for you.We need to remind ourselves of this important truth.  We need to be humbled by these realities, because we are to live… 

Live in Grace and Peace

In grace and peace.  We cannot live the Christian life apart from God’s grace.  It is His grace living through us by the Holy Spirit that we can live the life worthy of the call of Christ. 

If you attempt to live the Christian life apart from grace, under your own power, by your own standards, you will sink into legalism.  

You will fail to live up to the standards you have set and will impose those same standards on everyone around else around you and judge them for not meeting your ‘standard’. (By judging you take the focus off of your own failure.)  You will be miserable and you will make others around you miserable.  

We are to keep our eyes on Christ, humbled by understanding the incredible sacrifice he made on our behalf and the reality of our own sin. That we are all sinners saved by grace, all of us helped nail Christ to the cross.  And it was by his willingness to die for our sins that we are saved.  I am not saved by any ‘righteous’ standard I set or keep, it is all be grace.    

It is through Christ we have peace, we have peace with God and so when Jesus says, "Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  29  All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves.  30  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."   (Matthew 11:28-30), He means you will have peace and rest in Him.  

He is the Prince of Peace, He is our Lord and savior, He is Jesus.  Live a life worthy of your call, live in such a way that others see Christ in you and want the grace and peace you have. 

We are his ambassadors, ambassadors to the King, His representative, the body of Christ here on earth, called and sanctified by Jesus Himself.  

Go out from here and love as he loved you, forgive as he forgave you, extend grace as you have been and continue to be extended grace, live in humility as Christ lived humble, full of grace and truth.  Bring glory to Christ in all that you do—you are the church—God’s church.       

Sermon: A Life Submitted: Christ’s Example Part I (1 Peter 2:18-21)

 Message can be heard here.

Household slaves, submit with all fear to your masters, not only to the good and gentle but also to the cruel. For it brings favor if, mindful of God's will, someone endures grief from suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if you sin and are punished, and you endure it? But when you do what is good and suffer, if you endure it, this brings favor with God. For you were called to this, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in His steps. (1 Peter 2:18-21 HCSB)

What is the key to a life submitted?  What does it look like, where do we even start?  This question is what we will attempt to answer this morning and we’ll look at what living submitted should look like played out in real life and its impact.  One thing Peter has been driving at in this letter is we are to be different.  We are not like other people.  We have been set apart for a reason to make the Christ known.

When I survey Peter’s letter I am overwhelmed by the work of Christ.  He shed his blood for us so that we would have a new birth and a living hope in him.  The entire bible points to Christ’s coming and his coming again.  The reality of him suffering for my sin, for your sin, for the sins of the world is very heavy. We are redeemed by his precious blood, we are bought at a great price.  When I place this weight of this on my heart, when I examine my own sin, when I realize it was my sin that placed Christ on the cross, my heart shatters under the stress.  I cannot look at myself the same, I am broken and humbled.  

It is in this broken state, humbled that Christ can fully be realized.  “The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. God, You will not despise a broken and humbled heart.” (Psalms 51:17 HCSB)  We are to be a humble people, living with hearts humbled by the greatness of God and his grace, humbled by our own sin.  Humbled by the fact that our salvation rest not in what we DO, but in what he DID!  I have a poem I wrote a few years ago that I would like to share that

Standing behind her father the shy
buries her head in safe places
She peeks out with one eye open
a smile you can see only slightly

Who is this you are seeking, is she easily
obtained or understood?
Can one so shy be easily embraced or
even known in conversation

Yet without her the Father is not known
without her one is lost forever
She has to be approached ever so slightly
to know her is to be broken before the King

She will comfort those who morn, whose heart
are shattered
But to speak her name or to boast to
have held her will push her back away.

What is the name you seek?
The name you cannot whisper or speak
Humility is what you seek and is the name you
cannot speak

Humility is not something you can say you possess.  I have watched people try and project a false humility, but you can see it’s false.  They are not humble at all, they are only trying to make themselves look humble and thus they stumble and fall.  Humility has to come from a broken heart, humility is living in a state of ‘thankfulness’  for what Christ has done for us, in light of our sin.  Humility is key to living a life submitted.  

A Life Submitted

Peter has spent chapter two of this letter to remind us to live holy lives, desire to grow by focusing on Christ.  To remember he was chosen and valuable to God and we were chosen in him and we too are valuable to God.  We are his people, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his possession.  We are to go out into a dying and lost world and be his ambassadors.  

          -To Whom

So firstly we are to be submitted to Christ.  He has to be the focus of our lives.  He is the one who has bought us, he is the one who saves us, he is the one who empowers us and he is the one who gives us life.  We are to live submitted to Christ authority, we are to seek and do his will in our lives and in the world.  This is foundational to our entire way of life for the Christian.  Your life is not your own, “for you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body.

(1 Corinthians 6:20 HCSB) You are no longer slaves to sin, but have been set free.  You have been liberated to be slaves to righteousness and bear fruit for God.  To make Christ known to the glory of the Father, Paul explains it further in Romans 6:17-23

“But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching you were transferred to, and having been liberated from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to moral impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from allegiance to righteousness. So what fruit was produced then from the things you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. But now, since you have been liberated from sin and have become enslaved to God, you have your fruit, which results in sanctification--and the end is eternal life! For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  (Romans 6:17-23 HCSB)

We are to live a life submitted to Christ firstly.  From that position we are to go into the world, living a life humbly submitted to authority. 

          -Authority

We are to live our lives in obedience in civil authorities, understanding we are temporary strangers. (v.11) We are to live good quiet lives in submission to bring glory to God.  Understanding God is the one who establishes nations and authorities.  He uses them to bid his will and through our “good” works so as to silence the ignorant and foolish people.  Remembering people are ignorant of God and foolish in their thinking because of sin.  God uses us expose their sin through our actions and changes their hearts.  Which brings us to masters.  

-Masters

Slaves were a vital part of the Roman Empire. Peter was writing to people who were slaves themselves or were slaves once.  In verse 18, Peter is talking about household slaves, who took care of an entire house.  Slaves who cared for the children, cooked meals, cleaned and did what was needed to provide and maintain the house.  Peter reminds them they are to live a life submitted.  

They were to live humbly submitted to their master weather they was good or evil.  They were to always live knowing who they represented and how God would use them to make himself known.  If they suffered for Christ sake, for doing good, God would be pleased.  And through their actions, God would silence the ignorant and foolish.  Which brings us to a question about suffering, why does a loving God allow suffering?  There is no way I can answer this in one message, but these verses do give us a glimpse into the why. 

The Christians in Peter’s time were suffering for their faith and would continue to suffer.  Why does God allow Christians to suffer?  Let me give you something to think about.  We see suffering all over the world and many in the West, living comfortable lives see this and rage against God.  Atheist will point out suffering and tell us God doesn’t care.  But what about the people suffering what do they think?  In Randy Alcorn’s book “If God is Good” he tells this story:

A family in Milwaukee lost six of their children in a vehicle accident.  A driver of a truck, who was unskilled and managed to get his license through bribery, dropped a large object in the road and it struck the couples gas tank and caused an explosion killing their children.  Here is what Scott Willis said,he depth of our pain is indescribable.  However, the Bible expresses our feelings that we sorrow, but not as those without hope.  What gives us our firm foundation for hope are the words of God found in Scripture….Ben, Joe, Sam, Hank, Elisabeth and Peter are all with Jesus Christ.  We know where they are.  Our Strength rests in God’s Word.

Fourteen years after the event during an interview Janet said, “Today I have a far greater understanding of the goodness of God than I did before the accident.” Scott Willis finished the interview with this comment, ‘I have a stronger view of God’s sovereignty than ever before’.   

It was God who got them through this terrible event and their faith was strengthened by it.   Time and time again we see God using suffering to make himself known, people who survive have a deeper understanding of God or believe in God as a result of suffering. We must always remember and we cannot lose sight of who we are.  

You are called

God has called you.  If you are here today,  it isn’t an accident, God is moving in your life,  if you are a Christian, God is working in your life.  He has a plan and a purpose for you. 

         

-Purpose

You were called and set apart for obedience to Christ, who has given you a new birth and a living hope through the shedding of his blood.  You are called to be holy, as God is holy.  We are chosen, to be a royal priesthood to proclaim Christ to those who are ignorant to him, to intercede for them on their behalf to the living and loving God.  To offer prayers for them, to model a holy life for them, which is used by the Holy Spirit to convict them of their sin and make known judgment and righteousness that points them to Christ who alone can save them.  That is your purpose, that is what you are called to and that is what you will bring you the most satisfaction in your life, because in this God is most glorified.     

  

          -By God

I can hear some of you now saying, “that is a huge responsibility!”  That is a very heavy to load to carry, I can’t do that!  Your right you cannot do that without help.  Peter tells us in his second letter, His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. By these He has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The person who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted and has forgotten the cleansing from his past sins. Therefore, brothers, make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble. (2 Peter 1:3-10 HCSB)

 We are to focus our lives on Christ and what he did for us on the cross.  We are to remember it was God who called us according to his foreknowledge,

For He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will, to the praise of His glorious grace that He favored us with in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:4-6 HCSB)

Christ’s Example

What I love about Christianity is God always takes the imitative.  There is nothing in the Christian faith that doesn’t find its origin in God.  We love because he first loved us, we forgive because he forgave us.  We live humbly and submitted lives because Christ lived humbly and submitted to the Fathers will.  Christ suffered so we could have life through him and he sets the example for us to follow.  For you were called to this, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in His steps. (1 Peter 2:21 HCSB)

We are called to a life submitted to Christ, following his example for us.  It is not an easy life, but it is a rewarding life, with a great benefit plan!  It’s worth living! 

We started with this question, “What is the key to a life submitted?  What does it look like, where do we even start?”  Everything starts and ends in Christ.  We are to come before him and confess our sin and repent of them.  Humbled by the cleansing of our sin we thankfully submit our lives to him, to live for him, to follow his steps wherever they may lead.  For this end we are called, to this we grow in Christ, in this we find our strength and purpose.  We live this life of submission in front of others, so they may see Christ in us.  So that they may know Christ, so that they may be called out of the darkness of ignorance and foolishness and brought into his wonderful light that brings life.

This morning I pray God has touched your heart.  If you’re a believer I pray you have found comfort and strength of purpose to live a life submitted.  Humility is the key.  If you are here this morning and you are not a believer, I pled with you this morning to give your life to Christ.  I pray he would come into your heart and break it for his sake and replace with a heart that beats for him.  If you are convicted of the sin in your life confess it this morning, confess to God who alone can remove it.  Repent and turn to Christ, for his burden is light and his yoke is easy.  Don’t leave this morning without answering the call he has placed upon you!      

Sermon: In Your Heart (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

Sermon can be heard here.

We live in a great nation.  A nation I believe blessed by God.  We are a nation who has pursued freedom from tyranny, which is defined as “the unrestrained exercise of power.”  Many have died protecting this freedom not just for our nation, but for people everywhere.  In fact seven soldiers of our nation died this week.  In history of the world the United States of America is unique.  There has never been an establishment of a nation based on this statement:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”

In this statement we as a nation recognize God as the Creator and sustainer of our nation.  We know that God sustains and establishes all nations for His good will and purpose.  But I believe our nation’s founding fathers were intent on establishing this country on biblical principles.  In fact it is the basic biblical principles of grace, forgiveness, justice and righteousness this nation has allowed for such an incredible amount of diversity.   It is these principles that we have deployed the world over to confront evil and to rebuild nations.  What I fear is we have begun to lose these basic principles and the question then becomes, how do we recover them?   

Tomorrow is Memorial Day and as a veteran myself I have had the honor and privilege of serving my nation.  I want to see America continue to a force of good in the world.  With that said this is not my home.  I am a member of another kingdom; I belong to the kingdom of God first and foremost.  My heart is with the Lord’s in whatever nation He places me.  

Why do I make such a statement?  Because I think it is far more important for us to understand the big picture.  I do not put my faith in nations or the law of government.  They cannot change people’s hearts and if I thought they could I would have been a politician.  I know the truth about man’s heart and the only thing that can change the human heart is the living God, through Jesus Christ.  As a Christian my sole purpose is to live for the glory of Christ.  My time here is short but my time in heaven is for eternity. 

So how do we recover the basic biblical principles in our nation and why does it matter.  I hope to answer that question this morning and I think it starts with our children and I’ll explain why.   

In the Bible God established the people of Israel as a nation.  And right before he did Moses gave them finial instructions.   

Set the Stage

In the book of Deuteronomy we see Moses reminding the people of Israel of what to expect and what NOT to do once they are established.  Moses knows he will not enter the promise land with them.  He has led them for over 40 years from Egypt and through the deserts.  He has constantly interceded for them to God directly and now everything has been leading up to this.  So he tells them. 

"Listen, Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One. Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9 HCSB)

Shema (hear)

Deuteronomy 6:4 is the most quoted verse in the bible.  Orthodox Jews have recited this verse twice a day for thousands of years.  It is still recited today.  Jesus quoted this verse “He said to him, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”

(Matthew 22:37-39 HCSB)  In doing so he summed up the heart of the Law. 

          -Your Everything

Shema means to hear or listen.  Moses is saying this is something you have to pay attention to.  Like right now sit up and listen, take notice at what I am about to say.  He is saying if you miss this, you will suffer greatly, this is very important for you to understand.  It’s like when your son runs out in the street and the conversation you with him on the sidewalk.  His life depends on him understanding.  

What he tells them is what is going to separate the Israelites from the rest of the nations around them.  Firstly there is only one God, He is Yahweh. 

There are no other gods.  He is not many God’s, He is the one God and He is Sovereign.  The nations around them would worship multiple gods.  Israel was monotheistic which was different from everyone else.  

Secondly, this was a relationship based on love. It wasn’t a relationship built on legalism out of a sense of duty or necessity, but love.  This wasn’t just any love either; this love was to be much deeper.  In the Bible this love goes along the lines of husband and wife, father and son.  This love was to be the core of their being; they were to love the Lord with everything—from your heart.     

          -Your Heart

This idea gives some insight into the thinking of the ancient Hebrew life.  The heart was regarded was the seat of the mind.  From the heart, people lived their lives. It was the source of one’s being.  The heart was what made a person, their essence.  That idea didn’t change in the New Testament.  In fact we see how in the New Covenant God would write these principles upon our heart.  And out of love and devotion to Christ for what He has done for us we would follow his commands ‘wholeheartedly’, all of our heart, soul and strength.  

There wasn’t to be a shared love with anything else, this love and devotion is complete and undivided, Yahweh is Lord, period.  They were to love no one else.  This love for the Lord was to be passed onto the next generation.  His commandments were to be obeyed from generation to generation.  So Moses attaches special importance on teaching of their children.  

Engrave them

To ensure the passing on of this Love for Yahweh, the parents, every member of society was to aid in the teaching of the children.  

          -Children

The words and works of the Lord were to be chiseled into the lives of the hearts of the children.  The picture in verse 6-7 is that of an engraver.  He would use a chisel and a hammer to etch each word very carefully into granite.  It would take patience, endurance and once finished would be permeate.  This was to be accomplished by incorporating the covenant and its instruction into every aspect of their lives.       

         

-Talk About

They were to talk about it.  The word of the Lord was to be on their lips.  They were to share the stories of what God had done for their nation.  For what God had done in their lives.  Every conversation was to be seasoned with the words and thoughts of the Lord.  

-Walk About

When they walked, lied down, or got up, God and His ways were to be the topic.  Every opportunity that was given to share His word, His principles, most of all His love was to be taken advantage of.  Moses goes even further and says to bind them to your arms and foreheads, write the words on your door frames of your house and on your gates to be seen as you leave and return!  

          -Live About

They were to live it out in front of their children, every person always.  They were set apart by the Lord and they were to be different from everyone else in the promise land.  They were to be Yahweh’s people and He would be their God.  This was to be the heart of the entire nation and they where to impress this on every child.  

Everything Depends On It!

Because everything depended on it!  Let’s pick up in verse 10, and see what I mean. 

"When the LORD your God brings you into the land He swore to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that He would give you--a land with large and beautiful cities that you did not build, houses full of every good thing that you did not fill them with, wells dug that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant--and when you eat and are satisfied, be careful not to forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. Fear Yahweh your God, worship Him, and take your oaths in His name. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you, for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God. Otherwise, the LORD your God will become angry with you and wipe you off the face of the earth.”

(Deuteronomy 6:10-15 HCSB)

How do we get back to the basic biblical principles our nation was founded on and why does it matter?  It starts with our children.  It starts at home.  Each parent needs to take the responsibility to teach and to live Christ and His word in front of their children.  Mom and Dad are to model and to teach their children the word of God.  The church is to equip and train the parents and to assist them in teaching the children.  They are not primarily responsible for teaching the children they are to equip and assist.

We have to get back to this basic principle to ensure and to pass on Christ to the future generations.  Because if we don’t we will cease to be a nation of good, a nation God can use for his good will and purpose and we will cease to exist.  I believe this with all my heart. 

We the people do not sustain this nation.  It is not our will and determination that holds everything together.  It is not the collective goodness of our people that makes America great.  It is God and His grace and mercy.  The founding fathers acknowledged this idea and were fearful of losing it. George Washington said this:

‘I am sure that never was a people, who had reason to acknowledge a Divine interposition in their affairs, than those of the United States; and I should be pained to believe that they have forgotten that agency, which was so often manifested during our Revolution, or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of the God who is alone able to protect them.”       

Tomorrow is Memorial Day.  I would encourage you to attend one of the local ceremonies honoring those who gave their lives in the defense of this nation.  I would also ask you to consider what has been said here this morning and praise God for His blessings He has poured out on us as a people.  I would also encourage you to think about the urgency in which we need to get back to teaching our children about the Lord.  Realize we all have a hand in this, it is all of our responsibly to talk, walk and live the gospel.   I close with this verse. 

“I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, love the LORD your God, obey Him, and remain faithful to Him.” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20 HCSB)

Sermon: A Life Submitted: Civic Responsibility 1 Peter 2:13-16

Sermon can be heard at First Baptist Church of Rocklin

“Submit to every human authority because of the Lord, whether to the Emperor as the supreme authority or to governors as those sent out by him to punish those who do what is evil and to praise those who do what is good.  For it is God's will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good.  As God's slaves, live as free people, but don't use your freedom as a way to conceal evil.”  (HCSB)

This morning we are continuing this theme of a life submitted.  Peter is going to move us through different areas of our lives with this idea in mind.  We are to live a life in obedience to Christ, representing Him in our lives, to be an ambassador to those around us.  We live in a time when the world seems to be in constant upheaval.  In our own country I think we are tittering on the brink of significant change.

Meanwhile the church has becomes less and less relative to people lives.  I think that is happing for several reasons.  I think we have advocated our moral center in our own lives and have compromised with sin.  There isn’t much difference today from the average Christian and the average citizen who doesn’t believe.  I truly believe we have to get back to a Christ centered, Christ exulting lifestyle.  We need to live the gospel, share the gospel, and make the gospel the center of our lives. 

What does that look like and what impact does gospel have on the culture around us?  I hope to answer these questions.   Before we can start to unpack these verses we have to understand who we are.  Peter makes it a point many times in these one and half chapters to make this point clear. 

Who Are We?

Who are we? Peter tells us we are ‘temporary residents dispersed’ in verse one and again in 2 Peter 2:11 he says we are to live “as strangers and temporary residents”.  Peter is adamant about the point, we are not of this world.  Paul tells of all those who went before us in Hebrews 11:13 “they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth.”  So this isn’t just a thought of Peter but all the apostles believed and taught that life here was temporary.  It was Jesus who planted this thought when he said, “If I go away and prepare a place for you, I will come back and receive you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also.”  (John 14:3 HCSB)

We are to clearly live our lives here as temporary residence.  This is not our home.  Secondly we have to understand who we really are—we are heirs to a kingdom.  “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father!" The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God's children, and if children, also heirs--heirs of God and coheirs with Christ--seeing that we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”

(Romans 8:15-17 HCSB)

“Look at how great a love the Father has given us that we should be called God's children. And we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn't know Him. Dear friends, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is.” (1 John 3:1-2 HCSB)

Oh church I wish we would fully understand who we are in Christ, O how I wish for God to open our hearts and our minds and fill us with this knowledge! We are God’s people, a holy nation and royal priesthood, a people of His possession!  Once we were not a people but now we have received mercy and we are His people.  We know Him and He knows us.  Yet we live powerless lives, ineffective lives, lives that are meaningless in reaching the world for Christ!  Where is our passion, where is our zeal, where is our joy, our rejoicing!  How do we fix this?  It starts with submitting ourselves. 

Submit

The Christian life is one of submission; we are to be subjected to Christ.  Christ submitted Himself to the Father, “He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men. And when He had come as a man in His external form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death-- even to death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:7-8 HCSB) we in turn submit to Christ in everything.  We also submit to one another in fear of Christ.  So with this in mind it is easy to see Peter saying we are to submit to every human authority. 

-Every Authority

Verses 13-14, tells me several things.  Firstly, government has a purpose.  The purpose of government in these verses is to punish evil and praise good.  Its primary function is to maintain law and order. 

To establish rule for the betterment of all who are under its authority.  Paul tells us in Romans 13, “Everyone must submit to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are instituted by God. So then, the one who resists the authority is opposing God's command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have its approval. For government is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, because it does not carry the sword for no reason. For government is God's servant, an avenger that brings wrath on the one who does wrong.”  (Romans 13:1-4 HCSB)

God’s Will

Secondly government is instituted by God Himself, for His will and purpose. I can hear some of your thought right now.  What are we to do when government opposes God’s will?  What is our responsibility when government is evil. 

The Bible has many examples of resisting the authorities without violence or disrespecting the established authority.  Daniel and his fellow believers refused to bow to the golden image of the King.  They did so peacefully and survived the fiery furnace.  Daniel refused to stop praying and survived the lion’s den. 

Peter and the apostles were arrested and ordered not to teach about Christ, which they refused and accepted their punishment.  Paul also lived a life in submission to Roman authority up to his death.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a pastor in Germany during the rise of the Nazi party.  He saw firsthand the evils of government and came to this conclusion. “The demand for responsible action in history is a demand no Christian can ignore. We are, accordingly, faced with the following dilemma: when assaulted by evil, we must oppose it directly. We have no other option. The failure to act is simply to condone evil.”  As Christians we have the responsibility to oppose evil.  But the question is how.  

Dietrich would use his gift for writing and speaking mainly to oppose the Nazi government and the mistreatment of the Jewish people and everyone who opposed the rule of Hitler.  He also assisted in an assassination attempt on Hitler in the hopes of saving lives.  He continued to oppose the evil of the Nazi’s up to his death, which is believed to be one of the last execution orders given by Hitler himself.   

As Christians I believe we are to obey the rules of the land and were the government promotes evil or violation of God’s rules, we are to peacefully oppose them.  And were there extremes cases of evil, each will have to decide what is appropriate for them.  In Dietrich case he desperately struggled with the decision to assist in the taking of Hitler’s life.  I believe we are to work within the framework of law and order.  Peter even tells why.   

          -Silence

Peter tells us in verse 15 this “For it is God's will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good” I find this verse fascinating for this reason, look at it carefully.  God’s purpose for us to do “good”, to live under the authority of the government, to be good citizens, is to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

People around us are ignorant to the ways of God.  Paul reminds us, Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer walk as the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their thoughts. They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts. (Ephesians 4:17-18 HCSB)

For God's wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse. For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools  (Romans 1:18-22 HCSB)

How we live matters!  We are being used by God to teach, to show, to set an example, to make Christ known to the world by the way we live our lives.

We can only do this if we keep in our heart Christ.  Remembering always we belong to Him.

Slave

We are God’s slaves, we belong to him.  A slave lives to please his master.  This word slave has a negative meaning in our culture. 

In fact most of our translations use the word ‘servant’ instead and by doing so they miss the meaning of the word.  But in Peters day under the Roman Empire, there was an estimated 60,000,000 million slaves.  Slaves were used in every aspect of life.  So the reader of this letter fully understood what Peter meant. 

Peter has already reminded them they we redeemed, bought by the precious blood of Christ.  We are not our own, we were purchased from an empty way of life into an inheritance. Christ saved us from our sins, he purchased us to rescues us from death, He redeemed us to free us from our foolish ignorance, and gave a new life, living hope in Him.  Once we were far away and now we have been brought close.       

          -Live Free

We are free, free indeed.  Peter tells his readers to live in freedom.  We are to rejoice in our freedom, we are no longer slaves to sin.  No longer prisoners of our flesh, but we are made alive in Christ.  We are free from fear of judgment, free from condemnation, free from the guilt, free to worship the living God, free to enter the throne room with boldness.  Free to pray to the living God and know He hears us, free from death, we are free, free, free!  

          -But Don’t

Peter warns us , “but don’t use your freedom to conceal evil.”  As Christians we are free to choose to sin or not to sin.  We are not to use our freedom to do what we want.  We are to glorify God in everything; we are not to do anything that would bring shame to our Lord.  Paul reminds us “Don't you know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 HCSB)

DA Carson says, "People do not drift towards Holiness.  Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate towards godiness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.  We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance; we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom; we drift toward superstition and call it faith." 

Why Does it Matter?

Why does it matter? I set out in this message to answer the question, “What does it look like to live the gospel and what impact does gospel have on the culture around us?   I think it is clear that living a life submitted to authority is mandated by scripture and it is the will of God to do so.  A life submitted to Christ will have a profound impact on the culture around us, in that through us and the way we live Christ is made known.  Here is why this matters so much, the way we live in our culture and why we have to be different, why it really matters.  Lives are at stake. 

To suppress the truth about God and to exchange his glory for our own will have dire consequences.  We live in a culture that actively doing this very thing.  We as Christians are actively participating with them, in fact it is often hard to tell Christians apart from the world.  Because I think we have become too comfortable and we have lost sight at the big picture. 

If you one night you had a vision of your family dying in a fiery crash the next day.  By this vision you were convinced, no you knew they were going to die a horrible death.  How many of you would help them pack up their car the next day and wish them a safe trip?  Or would you beg and pled with them not to go and to stay home where it was safe. 

Yet this is what we are doing in our culture.  We see the signs, we know in our hearts what is coming.  We are only getting a taste of what is yet to come.  Yet we continue to ignore these realities and bid our friends and neighbors, brothers and sister, mom and dad’s, grand children, children, to live in ignorance and foolishness, when there is coming wrath and judgment! 

This is a weighty, this should be heart wrenching to all of us, we should be pleading for their very lives, broken before the Lord.  Praying that God opens their eyes before it is too late.  Praying that God uses us to reach them, praying that God breaks us from our comfort and our safety to be made a fool for Christ in the hopes of bringing light to those who are blind and knowledge of Christ to those who are ignorant.  O lord help us live a life submitted to you and to make you known in our country and to the world!     

“Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the Emperor.”

1 Peter 2:17 HCSB