Not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. For this finds favor if for the sake of conscience toward God a man bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly. For what credit is there if when you sin and are harshly treated you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.
For you have been called for this purpose since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin nor was any deceit found in His mouth. And while being reviled He did not revile in return, while suffering He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to him who judges righteously. And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, for by His wounds you were healed.
For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls. What the Holy Spirit writes through the Apostle Peter in this passage is certainly a movement against the current of our day, a current which is perhaps seen in the television show that is aired locally, at least on Saturday nights, called Fight Back, where it says you don't have to be shafted, you can fight back.
Or perhaps in the show called The People's Court, in which we are encouraged that if we are wronged and cannot settle it out of court, take them to court. We live in that kind of an age when we are told that it is our right that we should have fairness. The Apostle Peter writes especially to servants in this text. The early church was made up largely of those who were slaves. They had so very little in this life.
And for them the gospel offered hope, not only for this life, but especially for that which is to come. To those who are slaves, or by application to us today, to those who are employed and therefore under authority, Peter writes to us and says that we are to follow our Lord's example. He draws upon a passage of scripture from Isaiah 53 in which we are reminded that Jesus was called the servant, the slave of Jehovah.
And he says, as those who are also servants, we are to follow the example of Jehovah's servant, the Lord Jesus Christ. For he suffered, but he did not strike back. He endured and kept entrusting himself to his Father. Suffering is something that is a part of the Christian life. When we experience no suffering, we are experiencing the exception. Suffering is the norm for the Christian, whether it be overt and outward or subtle and hidden.
But suffering is the calling of God's people, as is clear from what Peter says here, that we were called for this purpose. A couple of interesting verses back in Philippians, chapter 1, you may want to look at briefly, which say essentially the same thing.
In verse 27, only conduct yourselves, he says, in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel, in no way alarmed by your opponents, which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you.
In other words, the spirit of peace in the midst of suffering, of endurance in persecution, that is a sign of destruction to those who oppose us, but of our own salvation. And he says in verse 29, for to you it has been granted for Christ's sake not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake. In other words, God has graciously granted to us not only that we may believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for the saving of our souls, but that we might also suffer for his sake.
Dear people, there was a day 2,000 years ago when the Lord Jesus Christ suffered in our place, and today God has graciously granted you and me the privilege to suffer in his place. Now, our sufferings in their effect are, of course, different, but suffering nonetheless. Now let's go back to 1 Peter chapter 2.
There are those today who try to tell us that Christians should not be suffering, that if in fact we are experiencing a lack of prosperity or ill health or suffering, that somewhere we have missed the will of God. That is a popular kind of theology. Warren Wiersbe wrote, There is a shallow brand of popular theology today that claims that Christians will not suffer if they are in the will of God. Those who promote such ideas have not meditated much on the cross.
What he says, he says accurately, Humility and quiet submission are not evidence of weakness, but rather of power. In this text he tells us that we should follow the example of the Lord Jesus, but let us remember that as sinners we not only need an example, but first and foremost we need a Savior. And in verse 24 that's what he focuses on. He says, He himself, that is the Lord Jesus, the one who is an example, but more than that, He Himself bore our sins.
This one who was without sin, verse 22, this one who was fully man bore our sins. It was His deity that gave His sacrifice on the cross its ultimate, infinite worth. But it was also as sinless man that He was qualified to die in your place and in mine. It says He Himself bore our sins. That verb means to bear as a sacrifice our sins. Where did He do it? Well, it was on the cross or on the tree, that piece of wood, that stake to which He was nailed that He bore our sins.
In Galatians chapter 3 we are reminded that whoever is hanged on a tree is cursed of God, and that was Jesus' condition for our sake. You may remember that the Jews did not crucify. When there was a criminal worthy of death they did what? They stoned him.
But in cases where the crime was exceedingly heinous and wicked, it was permissible for them to hang the executed person's body on a tree or a stake for the rest of that day, there to show the shame of what that person had done by his corpse hanging there. The Lord Jesus Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree. Dear people, let us never forget the price that was exacted by a holy God that we might be gathered here tonight as God's children.
Let us never forget that it was the Lord Jesus, God's beloved Son, who in His own body bore your sin in mine. Not His, He was without sin. But He absorbed your sin in mine and its penalty and paid the price. Now, why did He do that? Well, you say He died there that He might die for our sins. And, of course, that is true, but Peter's point is just a little different. He says that we might die to sin and live under righteousness.
In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ died not only that we might be forgiven of our sin, but that we might experience victory over our sin. What Peter says here goes back to Romans chapter 6, where the Apostle Paul reminds us that in the Lord Jesus Christ we died to sin and were raised to walk in newness of life.
Whereas before our salvation we were slaves of sin, having now believed from the heart that word of the gospel delivered to us, we have been freed from the tyranny of sin indwelling us so that we are no longer its slaves. As we come to the Lord's table tonight to observe these ordinances, let us remind ourselves that Jesus not only died that we might be cleansed from sin's guilt, but also saved from sin's power.
We dare not observe this ordinance and proclaim the gospel if our lives are not proclaiming the power of that gospel. If we as God's people are living in sin, then we are a contradiction. And when we do sin, and we do, we are to immediately confess that we might be restored to fellowship. We are to yield ourselves afresh and anew to the Lordship of Jesus Christ that we might live unto righteousness.
It would be good for us to bow together in prayer at this point, just to once again examine our hearts as we are commanded in 1 Corinthians 11. To examine our hearts to see if there be some sin that we have failed to confess. If there be some sin that we are harboring there, protecting there, rather than dealing with, would you in the quietness of just a few seconds search your heart and if need be make proper confession and repentance before the Lord.
Father, we would be properly introspective and examine our hearts. We would not come to this table unprepared. We would not partake of these elements in an unworthy manner, our lives being infected by sin. But rather as much as we know, we have confessed our sins to you. We thank you that you are faithful and just in forgiving us of our sins and cleansing us from all of our unrighteousness. We thank you for our advocate and our propitiation to the Lord Jesus Christ.
We thank you that he fully dealt with our sins when he died on the tree. I pray that as we remember that price and observing this ordinance, our hearts may be stirred afresh with love for Jesus Christ. We pray this in Jesus' name. The Apostle Paul says that on the night Jesus was betrayed, he took bread. He broke it and gave thanks for it and then distributed it to his disciples as a memorial from then on of his body, which was about to be broken for their sin.
Would you bow together with me as we thank God for the body of the Lord Jesus Christ? And just where you are seated right there, would you express thanks to God yourself for the broken body, the sacrificed body of the Lord Jesus? Father, we thank you that the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. We thank you that he partook of flesh and blood, that he might go to the cross and there as the God man, without sin, yet take our sin upon himself and bear it as a sacrifice.
Our God, we thank you for the body of the Lord Jesus symbolized in this element which we are about to partake of. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. After Jesus had given thanks, he broke the bread and said to his disciples, take and eat. This is my body which is for you, this due remembrance of me. Let's share it together. Likewise, he shared with them a cup that evening symbolizing his blood which was to be poured out on the cross for our redemption.
Let us bow together and thank you for the blood of the Lord Jesus. Just where you are seated there, will you give thanks to the Father for the blood of Christ as the Lamb without blemish and without spot. Father, we thank you for that precious flow that makes us as white as snow. For that precious blood of Christ, we offer unto you our eternal gratitude. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. As the organ plays, let me read scripture for you for your meditation.
For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor was it that he should offer himself often as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood not his own. Otherwise he would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now once, at the consummation of the ages, he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly wait for him. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when he comes into the world, he says, Sacrifice and offering thou hast not desired, but a body hast thou prepared for me.
In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast taken no pleasure. Then I said, Behold I come to do thy will, O God. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. He having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, set down at the right hand of God. Jesus said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. Let us share it together.
Without accompaniment, let us sing together, My Jesus, I love thee. I know thou art mine. For thee all the pleasures of sin I resign. Would you stand with me and let's sing that. My Jesus, I love thee. I know thou art mine. For thee all the pleasures of sin I resign. My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art thou. If ever I love thee, my Jesus, tis now. O how I love Jesus, O how I love Jesus, O how I love Jesus, because he first loved me.
As we go out this evening, as our custom to receive an Evelyn offering, we use it for those who have particular needs in their homes and their situations. If you would like to participate in that, you are invited to do so. One of the ushers will be stationed at the door with a plate to receive it. Now let's bow together in closing prayer. Now Father, having remembered the death of the Son of God, we depart in the joy and in the power of his resurrection. We praise you.
We thank you for the Lord Jesus and the completeness of his saving work for all time. And that now he stands at the right hand of God interceding on our behalf. It is in that confidence that is in him and in the hope of his second appearing that we dismiss ourselves unto your blessing tonight. Amen. Good night.