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Christ Community Chapel is a church in Hudson, OH, that invites people to reimagine life because of Jesus. Learn more about us at ccchapel.com.
This is a reading from 1 Peter 2"13
- 25.
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.
For this is the will of God, that
by doing good
you should put to silence the ignorance
of foolish people.
Live as people who are free,
not using your freedom
as a cover up for evil,
but living as servants of God.
Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood.
Fear God. Honor the Emperor.
Servants, be subject to your masters
with all respect.
Not only to the good and gentle,
but also to the unjust.
For this is a gracious thing.
When, mindful of God, one endures
sorrow while suffering unjustly.
For what credit is it if, when you suffer
and are beaten for it, you endure?
But if one you do good and suffer for it,
you endure.
That is a gracious thing
in the sight of God.
For to this you have been called,
because Christ also suffered for you,
leaving you an example
so that you might follow in his steps.
He committed no sin.
Neither was deceit found in his mouth.
When he was reviled,
he did not revile and return.
When he suffered, he did not threaten,
but continued entrusting himself to him
who judges justly.
He himself bore our sins in his body
on the tree,
that we might die to sin
and live to righteousness by his wounds.
You have been healed.
For you are straying like sheep,
but have now returned
to the shepherd
and overseer of your souls.
Well, good morning and
welcome to the weekend
gathering of Christ Community Chapel.
My name is Zach.
I'm one of the pastors here,
and I'm so glad
that we get to be part of your weekend.
We're continuing our fall sermon series,
going through the Book of First Peter.
We're about halfway there,
which means there's a second half
and then it's Christmas.
The year is going by quickly,
so if you have a Bible,
would you take it out and open it to first
Peter chapter two?
Perfectly
okay to take out your phone or tablet.
And hey, if you're here and it's
been a little while since you've been in
church, maybe church,
the Bible is not part of your story.
You have no idea where First Peter is.
Take a deep breath. That's okay.
It's going to be on the screen
behind me when I reference it,
and you are in exactly the right place.
So glad you came this weekend,
and everything I have to say
is as much for you
as it is for anyone else.
But first, Peter is a letter written
to a growing church
in the midst of a hostile culture.
And we think there are a lot of parallels
between that church
and this one, between that culture
and this one.
And so we're seeking to uncover
what was God's message to that church,
and what is his message to our church?
What is he looking for us to do?
And be in our present time?
So to talk about first Peter to
and to guide our time together,
I have three points
I'm going to use as an outline.
Very simple.
And they go like this
I want to show you that God has a vision,
God has a strategy, and God has a resume.
God has a vision.
God has a strategy.
God has a resume.
All right.
Let's start with the first point.
God has a vision.
You know, anytime we do a sermon series
where we're going through
a book of the Bible, it's important
to remember
that we section the book out
because we have to
we have limited time together,
but those sections are arbitrary.
In first, Peter is a letter.
It's meant to be read up front to back,
beginning to end.
We don't have that kind of time,
so we chop it up, which means sometimes
those sections can cause us, if we're not
careful, to miss out a little bit.
Like, for example,
the verse that gives this passage today,
its context actually comes in the section
right before it.
It's at the end of the section.
It was the last verse of the passage
that Pastor Joe looked at last week.
But it's important
one to have in our minds
as we look at our passage this week.
So let me read it to you first
Peter chapter two, verse 12.
Here's what it says.
Keep your conduct among the Gentiles.
You can understand that word.
It just means non-Christians,
nonbelievers, honorable.
So that when they speak against you
as evildoers,
they may see your good deeds
and glorify God.
On the day of visitation,
Peter says that when God
is looking at the hostile culture in which
the church in its present context,
and certainly in our context exists,
and he sees those who hate Christianity,
who hate the Bible, who hate church,
who who disbelieve in God,
those who would be considered
enemies of the faith.
When God looks at them,
he wants one thing.
He wants them
to go from enemies to friends.
He talks about living in such a way
that those who currently hate you.
He says on the day of visitation, which is
a reference to the Day of Judgment.
When Christ returns,
he says, I want you to live in such a way
that those who are currently enemies
will be excited to see Jesus
when he comes back.
In other words, Peter says,
I want you to think about the person
who's the most hostile,
the most antagonistic,
who makes fun of your faith,
who has no interest.
And I want you to understand
that God's vision for that person
is that they become a fellow worshiper.
A God is a God, a vision.
And what I mean is, God does not
look at the world the way it is.
He looks at the world
the way he wants it to be.
He doesn't look at your family
the way it is.
He looks at your family
the way he wants it to be.
He doesn't look at your life
the way it is.
He looks at what he wants it to be.
Let me give you a metaphor
to drive this home. Now.
I've been married for 20 years.
Over the course of those 20 years, my wife
Amy and I have owned different homes.
As we've moved in different towns.
We bought and sold homes,
which has taught me an important lesson.
You know, every time we go
to look at a home, my wife gives me
the same speech on the way to the house
and she says, no, Zach,
I don't want you to worry about
the way it looks now.
The carpet, the wallpaper, the paint,
so we can change all that.
Don't
don't worry about the way it looks now.
And every time I say to her,
of course I'm not an idiot.
Then we get to the house, we walk around.
She says, what do you think?
And I say, I don't like it.
This is what don't you like about it?
And I said, well, I guess maybe the paint,
the wallpaper and the carpet.
You see, when it comes to house buying,
I am not a person of vision.
I see things the way they are and I can't,
I just I can't see myself living there.
I can't see our furniture working.
But my wife is the opposite.
She is a woman of vision
when it comes to house buying.
So when she walks in, she doesn't see
the paint or the carpet or the wallpaper.
She sees what it will be
when she gets done with it.
I wonder how many of us are
like me when it comes to our lives.
How many of us are living in lives
we don't love,
in families
that are broken, in communities
that are struggling,
in a world that feels full of despair.
And we're looking at the paint
and the wallpaper and the carpets
and we're saying, you know what?
I just don't like living here.
But God is more like my wife.
He sees what you can be,
what your family will be,
what your community,
what the world could be.
He has a vision.
That means if you came in this weekend
and you thought, man, my life is broken,
my family is broken, my community,
my world is broken and there is no hope.
Your problem isn't that there isn't hope.
Your problem is you're like me.
You can't see it.
But God can.
And God does.
Of course, there's a difference
between my wife and I.
When we go to look at homes.
You probably already guessed it.
I am not handy at all.
In fact, full
disclosure, when I decided
to use this easel in my sermon, I asked,
could someone else set it up for me
because I wasn't 100% sure I could do it?
Okay, I'm not handy.
So when I walk into a house and I see
the wallpaper and the carpet in the paint,
the reason I can't see what will be
is because I don't know how to change
wallpaper, paint, or carpet,
so I just assume it can't be done.
But my wife can, so she sees not
just what the house will be.
She knows how to get it there.
You see, every business leader,
every entrepreneur will tell you vision is
awesome, but vision is meaningless
unless you know how to get it done.
That's why my first point is God
has a vision.
But here's my second point
God has a strategy.
It isn't just that God sees what could be.
He knows how to get there.
He knows how to bring change
into your life, into your family,
your community, into your world.
I wonder if I had you.
Guess what God's strategy
for changing you is?
For what God's strategy
for changing the world is.
If you could guess, it.
I don't think so.
Look with me at verses 13 through 17.
Let's see God's strategy
for changing the world.
Here's what it says.
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.
For this is the will of God, that
by doing good
you should put to silence the ignorance
of foolish people.
Live as people who are free,
not using your freedom
as a cover up for evil,
but living as servants of God.
Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear
God, honor the Emperor.
Peter says God's strategy
for accomplishing his vision
of turning enemies into worshipers,
of turning enemies into family
is pretty simple.
Here's
his strategy your and mine submission
are surrender.
Now you notice,
he says, to submit to the government,
to submit to the Emperor.
Some of you are worried
I'm going to get political,
but that's the point.
You see, the Emperor at this time
in the writing of this
letter was a guy named Nero.
Maybe you've read a history book.
You know about him.
For instance,
when Nero would throw cocktail parties,
he would build these wooden structures
and he would put Christians on the top
of them, and he would light them on fire
and they would burn as the candles
that lit the party.
You imagine
2 or 3 people drinking a cocktail, talking
about how their day was
while a Christian burns above them.
Nero is the guy who fiddled
while Rome burned.
He was a sociopath.
He was crazy.
So when Peter says honor
the Emperor, his point
isn't that they should find something good
about Nero.
There wasn't much good.
He's not talking about surrender
to Nero or submission to Nero.
He's talking about submission to God.
He's saying no
matter what God asks of you,
even if he asks you
to honor a crazy emperor,
look at the very next verse.
Even if he tells you servants
to obey your masters
no matter what God asks, give it to him.
No matter what he wants. Surrender to it.
Because if you do,
he'll change your world.
Let me give you four reasons why.
Submission is God's strategy
for changing your life
and changing your family
and changing your world.
Here's the first one.
Submission is personal.
In our culture.
When we think about God,
we tend to think of him as a concept,
a concept really of our own making.
It's why we use sentences like, well,
when I think about God, I think about him
like this, or to me, to me,
God is like this.
My God would say this.
My God would never say that.
But the Bible says sentences
like that don't make any sense
because God is not a concept.
He's a person.
He actually tells us what he likes
and doesn't like.
Let me make let me use a metaphor.
Let's say that you and I
were going to lunch.
I know fulfilling your wildest dreams.
You and Pastor Zach going to lunch.
You put it on Instagram. Hashtag besties.
Pastor Zach and I going to lunch,
and I get in the car and you say,
hey, Pastor Zach, I've been so excited
to have lunch with you.
I can't wait.
And I'm I'm going to take you to
this Mediterranean restaurant that I like.
I've had my heart set on
Mediterranean food.
Pastor Zach, Mediterranean food's
going to be an amazing lunch.
And I would look at you in that moment.
I would say, oh, man, so sorry,
I don't like Mediterranean food.
Can you imagine if you said to me what?
No, no, no, no, my pastor
Zach likes Mediterranean food.
I mean, when I think of you, Zach,
I think of you eating lamb
or olives or feta cheese.
I mean, Pastor Zach,
I mean, to to me to me,
you are someone
who likes Mediterranean food.
How absurd would that be?
But, friends, it's no less absurd
when you say those things about God.
You don't get to decide what God likes
and what he doesn't,
what he's for
and what he's against. God is a person.
He's not a concept.
He tells you what he likes.
Submission is dealing with a God
who's not conceptual.
He's real.
Here's the second.
The reason submission matters
not just because it's personal.
Second, it's relational.
I mean, in that moment when you say Pastor
Zach Mediterranean food
and I say, I don't like
Mediterranean food, and we come to a red
light, you have two choices.
You can decide you want lunch
with me so badly
that you will pivot on where we're going.
You'll say something like, well, you know,
how about Mexican?
Or how about a burger, right?
Because you want to have lunch with me,
or you'll decide
you want Mediterranean food so badly
that you'll open my door
and say, get out.
But if you look at me and say, well,
I'm going to be better
at Mediterranean food
anyways, we're going to have a problem.
Can you imagine any world
where you go, well,
I hate to hear that,
but that's where we're going.
And I go, okay,
well friends,
why do we think that's how God is?
Why do we think that when God says
this is what appropriate sexuality
looks like, this is what it looks like
to manage your money?
Well,
this is how you should raise your family.
This is how you should do your marriage.
That we look at him and go,
you know what, God, thanks,
but I'm not going to do it that way.
Why do we think that God would
look back at us and go, okay,
just because he doesn't
and he won't?
Submission is personal.
It's relational, by the way.
Every relationship changes you.
You must know that.
I mean, I'm 42 years old.
I've been married to my wife for 20 years.
I'm a different 42 year old man
than I would be if I hadn't married Amy.
She challenges me. She contradicts me.
There are things that are true of her
that force me to reckon with who I am.
That's inevitable.
Of a relationship with a person.
How much more so?
A personal, relational God.
But here's the third thing
I want to tell you about submission.
It's pivotal, meaning
it makes all the difference.
Now, some of you have not heard
a single thing I've said this morning
because you're
wondering what this is about.
Let me
bring you back into the sermon, okay?
And tell you that here's here's
what I want you.
I'm going to draw this.
I hope you can see it
no matter where you're sitting.
I think it'll be on the screen,
but I think it'll be more helpful
if I draw it.
Let's say that this circle or oval
or whatever shape this is represents me.
This is everything that is true of me.
Everything I think,
everything I like, everything I believe,
okay, I will all that is true of me.
And then let's say this circle
represents Jesus.
It's everything that's true of Jesus.
Everything he taught,
everything he believes,
everything he's for,
everything he's against.
That's Jesus.
I want you to see
that there's some natural overlap,
meaning Jesus.
And I naturally agree on some things.
There are some things that Jesus talks
about that I just I get
and I would have gotten them
whether I was a Christian or not.
Some people are just generous.
They're just kind, they're hard working.
And yes, there might be some Bible verses
that affirm those things,
but they were going to always be
and do those things.
They just happen to agree with Jesus.
Can I let you in on something?
If you've been a Christian for a while, if
you've been coming to church for a while
and you're bored,
you're bored with Christianity,
you're bored with the church,
you're bored with the Bible,
and you don't feel like you're changing.
Here's why. If you always hang out
in the areas you agree with Jesus,
nothing will ever change.
You already agree with them.
Every pastor in America knows this.
There are certain topics
that if I talk about, I get encouragement
because it just so happens those are areas
Jesus talked about that agree
with our culture.
And then there are certain areas,
if I talk about it, I get whatever
the opposite of encouragement is.
But here's what I want you to understand.
Following Jesus means
dealing with this part of the circle.
Agreeing with Jesus means hanging out
on the things that you already agree with.
Following
Jesus means pushing into the stuff
that you wouldn't think about
if not for him,
the way you wouldn't live if not for him.
That is the magic of Christianity.
That is the supernatural aspect
of Christianity,
because it's the supernatural aspect
of every relationship.
It's when the person you are
in relationship with challenges you.
The change actually happens.
If you feel stuck, it's because all you're
trying to do is agree with Jesus.
But if you want to get unstuck,
you're going to have to follow him.
And that's the pivotal part of Christian.
I got news for you.
If all you ever
if all you ever do is stay on the areas
you agree with, Jesus,
I don't think you're following him.
You're just agreeing with them.
Followers of Jesus
or those who invite him to talk
about the other part of the circle.
Here's the fourth thing about submission.
It's not just personal dealing
with a God who can be known.
It's not just relational actually
being in relationship with that God.
It's not just pivotal
being in relationship with a personal God
in the way that it changes you.
It's also missional.
And what I mean by that is remember
Peter's goal.
His goal is to turn enemies
into worshipers.
Let me draw this for you page.
Turn.
Have not done that well in any service.
By the way,
if over time
I follow
Jesus into that part of the circle,
I become a Jesus led Zach,
a new version of myself,
a version of myself that looks like Jesus,
that talks like Jesus.
And as a result,
the people around me begin to notice.
Let me use another construction metaphor,
which is hilarious if you know me.
But two weeks ago they had me shoot
a video and I was wearing a hard hat,
and I feel like
it's changed me as a person.
When a
developer is building a neighborhood
from scratch, what they'll often
do is build one house right
at the beginning of the neighborhood.
They call it a spec house,
and they'll say,
come walk through it and see what
the other houses are going to be like.
When you and I, fellow Christian,
when you and I have a relationship
with a real personal
God that begins to change us,
we become the spec house
for everyone around us.
For those in our family,
for those in our community,
for those in our world, you see,
they begin to realize that
if they would set down their conceptual
God and reckon with the actual God,
things would begin to change.
If you and I let Jesus
talk to us about sexuality
or money or career or parenting
or any of the things
that we have been shutting him out,
if we let Jesus lead us into the areas
we don't naturally agree with him,
we become the spec house
for people around us.
Watch what God can do with submission.
You want to change your life.
You want to change your family.
You want to change
your community. Want to change the world.
Submit to the leadership of Jesus.
Now I know, I know,
you think well, hold on a second.
You're telling me if I submit to Jesus
as it relates to money
or career, sex or parenting or marriage
or whatever it is I'm doing,
if I surrender to Jesus, somehow
that's going to change the world.
Me? Yes.
So I don't know if I believe that. Okay.
That's fair.
That's why my third point is not just
God has a vision,
not just God has a strategy,
but God has a resume.
You see, it's a little bit
like a job interview.
If you've ever interviewed anyone,
you say, well,
tell me what you'd bring to the company.
And they say, oh, you know, sales
will be up 50% and no one will ever quit.
In fact, I'm such a good manager.
People probably work for free.
Mean, I don't know,
right?
Everybody paints this big vision
of what they can accomplish.
And if you're a smart interviewer,
you know, to say,
well, where have you done that before?
So fair question to God is, okay,
you're telling me my surrender
will lead to the world changing?
Where have you done that before I did,
you know that's how he ends the passage?
Because me pick it up in verse 21.
Here's what he says.
For to this you have been called
because Christ also suffered for you,
leaving you an example
so that you might follow in his steps.
He committed no sin,
neither was deceit found in his mouth.
When he was reviled,
he did not revile in return.
When he suffered, he did not threaten
but listen, but continued
entrusting himself to him
who judges justly.
He himself bore our sins in his body
on the tree, that we might die to sin
and live to righteousness.
By his wounds you have been healed, for
you were straying like sheep,
but have now returned to the shepherd
and overseer of your souls.
See, what Peter says is,
if you doubt that surrender
can change the world,
consider this the epicenter of your faith.
Is it the Son of God
submitted to the will of the father?
And that's what changed the world.
The submission of
Jesus is what leads to your forgiveness.
It is what leads to your sanctification.
It is what leads to your includes
and in the kingdom that God is building.
Peter is referencing Luke 2242,
in which Jesus, the night he was arrested,
said, this father,
if you are willing,
remove this cup from me.
Listen nevertheless, not my will,
but yours be done.
You know why your sins are forgiven.
You know why
you have hope of being changed.
Do you know why you'll be included
in God's kingdom forever and ever?
Follow Christian. Here's why.
Because Jesus Christ, the King of heaven,
the Son of God, fully God, fully man.
Submitted.
Peter says, don't you see
this is God's template.
He uses submission
to change the world.
Friends,
I know in evangelical Christianity
there are a lot of methodologies
being held out to you.
Hide while the world crumbles.
Fight while the world crumbles.
You can choose either of those.
But neither of them
are the approach of Jesus,
because the message of God to you
is fighting and hiding
won't change the world,
but surrender to the will of God.
Will you know why
the world is the way it is?
That's the world
we get when we listen to ourselves.
You went out.
You'll have to listen to him.
Let me pray for us, father God,
I submission is hard,
especially in this culture where
the chief virtue is individual autonomy.
I am what I say I am.
I can be what I say
I want to be, and that's true.
I can believe all those things.
And then I get the family.
I have the life, I have the community,
I have the world I have.
But God, we want more than that.
Holy spirit, would you
show us how the call to submission
is a call
for the glory of God, and for our good
and for the good of those around us
who might be enemies today,
but can be worshipers tomorrow
if they see a God who is real
and relational
and changing and available.
I do that for your glory and our good.
In Jesus name we pray. Amen.