Persecuted Church

This morning I would like to share with you something that was written two thousand years ago to a church who was also worried about their future, a persecuted church. We are so aware, aren't we? And the last six months has just been, on various fronts, something that may have caused you as a Christian to really struggle with how we should live as Christians in a world that is so obviously non-Christian. In a country that is becoming less and less Christianized and part of the old way of the Christendom that Europe and the West lived under for hundreds of years. As we move away from that, how do we deal with that?

How do we deal with the frustration? What is our worldview about that? And we've been wrestling with the issue of same-sex marriage for feels like eternity, and it's gaining ground and gaining momentum. It's in the media all the time. We've been dealing with the threat of terrorism and ISIS and of a very particular brand of Islam and whether you believe that is Islam full stop, whatever.

But more and more, there's just been things happening in the world that may cause a lot of frustration and dismay. Have you been experiencing that? Has it been affecting you? This morning, we're going to be looking at a chapter, like I mentioned, in 1 Peter 2, where the Apostle Peter speaks to Christians who are experiencing real alienation and marginalization. And he writes to a church that is sidelined, a church that is oppressed, friends, by family members.

We're going to read, if you have your Bibles, from verse 11 in chapter 2 till the end of the chapter. 1 Peter 2:11. Peter writes this to the church: Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that though they may accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us. Submit yourselves to, for the Lord's sake, to every authority instituted among men, whether to the king as the supreme authority, or to governors who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.

For it is God's will that by doing good, you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil. Live as servants of God. Show proper respect to everyone. Love the brotherhood of believers.

Fear God. Honour the king. Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it?

But if you suffer for doing good and endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called because Christ suffered for you leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps. He committed no sin and no deceit was found in His mouth. When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate. When He suffered, He made no threats.

Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly. He Himself bore our sin in His body on the tree so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. By His wounds, you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and the Overseer of your souls. So far our reading.

Now keep your Bibles open because we will be working from the text. But just to give us a little bit of a context of what's happening here in our passage in chapter 2 this morning, Peter has been talking to Christians and telling them of the new reality that they have entered into as Christians. These are new Christians. These are new Christians that he's writing to. And from various backgrounds, it's a diverse group of people.

He is talking to slaves on the one hand. He is talking to rich, wealthy people on the other hand. He's talking to men and women, children, old people. He's talking to a broad range of people. You could almost say something that looks a little bit like our church.

But they are very much new Christians in a new reality of what it means to be a Christian. And in chapter 2, a great chapter in the Bible, he talks about these Christians being built as living stones, he calls them, into the temple of God. He says that they are like living, breathing, well, we don't have a brick building, but living stones cast into a building, a temple of God. And Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the capstone and the cornerstone of this building. At one point, this cornerstone or the capstone was rejected, being executed and crucified, but we see in His resurrection that He has become the cornerstone, the capstone that holds this new temple, this new community together.

And therefore, Peter concludes that this community of living stones were once not a people of God. They were not. They, you, did you, we came from various backgrounds. We came from various cultures. But now Peter says, you are a new community. Once a people, once you were not a people, he says, but now you have become a people of God.

Once you did not know God's mercy, but now you have received the mercy of God, he says. And because He has shown us mercy through forgiveness and purification, one final blessing is announced. We are the living temple of God. We are the community where God dwells. This is massive.

We are the community where God dwells. So that is what Peter said up until now. That's not light stuff, is it? That's some pretty significant truth right there. And Peter has been saying that in chapter 2, but now he sort of says, what is the implication of this understanding?

What is the implication of this new reality that we have as Christians? Well, Peter says we have to deal with this question. It's fine to understand ourselves as this new reality, this new living place of God, this new temple of God, but how do we live in a world that is so different to that reality? How do we live among people that do not have the living God in them, that's not motivated by the same things we are motivated by? How do we live lives guided and informed by God's Spirit in us?

How do we live healthy Christian lives in a world we so often see living unhealthy, unchristian lives? How do we live in a world that tries to push these unhealthy values on us? And Peter begins by saying that the only way to beat them is not to join them. Verse 11: Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and aliens in this world to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul. As people who belong to a new world order that's been instituted by God and Jesus Christ, a community of God, you guys, friends, are like strangers and illegal immigrants in this world.

You are illegal. Uses those words: aliens. And therefore, as strangers and aliens who hold a vastly different set of values and beliefs, abstain, which means avoid at all costs the sinful desires which war against your soul. What are these things? Well, Peter already in chapter 2 has mentioned them in verse 1. He says, rid yourself of all malice, all anger, all hatred.

Rid yourself of all deceit, of lying to yourself, to others, of hypocrisy, having double standards, one set of morality compared to another set of morality, envy, slander of every kind. Rid yourself of all those things as Christians. Abstain from one of them, he says, from all of it. You don't belong to this world anymore. But I love how he says it as well, how he paints this picture.

He says that it is a war that we're fighting. It is a sinful desire which wars against our soul. And I love it because we realise it is true. We know if you've been a Christian for a while, we know those struggles, and the beautiful picture is on the one hand, we know that this is a battle because we know that feeling of losing ground, of losing ground in that battle and then winning ground and then losing it. It's this constant thing, but also on the other hand, we know it's a battle and therefore we will not stop fighting.

We will not lose this. We cannot lose this. We fight for it with all we have. And then we get to the reason behind why we are fighting in this war. Verse 12 says, you are to live such good lives among the pagans, the unbelievers, that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.

Who are the pagans? Were they those, you know, Baal worshippers or the Roman god worshippers? They were anyone who did not worship Jesus Christ. So they are your unsaved family members. They are your unsaved, non-Christian co-workers. They are your uni student friends.

Peter reinforces what Jesus said in Matthew 5:16, that we are to live like salt in this world and shine our light before those who live with us so that, Jesus said, so that they may see your good works and praise your Father in heaven. It's almost exactly the same words that Peter uses. And so you may have asked this question: well, if we live as strangers and aliens in this world because we have a new home that we've been called to, this living hope that Peter introduces his epistle, his letter with, this new inheritance kept safe for us in heaven, if we live in between this world and the next, why are we still here? Why don't we just end our lives and go to heaven?

Well, because God is in the process of redeeming even this broken world into His new world. There are aspects Revelation tells us about, other parts of Scripture that tell us about where this world will be established or taken up in some way into the world that is to come. We saw those leaders cast their crowns. We saw later on in Revelation, kings bringing their bounty to God. All the technology that has been developed in this life, in this world, all the good things we have learned, we bring that to God and He redeems that.

And so on the one hand, we belong to this new home and yet we are here for a reason. We are here for the purposes of God. So there's an aspect, Peter says, of our healthy living, which is in itself attractive, which is in itself part of that redemption process. Healthy lives, Peter, Christian values, living according to them will be something that draws non-Christians. It is part of our evangelism.

Lives filled with love and grace of the Lord Jesus, filled with love and compassion for the poor and the needy, for the bullied and the marginalised. We can live such good lives in looking after our bodies physically and our mind. All of this will draw people to God. And then we see in this final passage from verses 13 to 25 how Peter very practically fleshes out how this looks. He fleshes it out.

The first thing he says: Peter addresses those Christians who are experiencing the persecution or the oppression or the pressure of government agencies, kings, of rulers, of governors. Have a listen to what he says. He says, the reality, if we were to remain strong in our belief as Christians, strong in our belief that God is our new authority, we will cop flack. We will cop flack as Christians. Verses 13 to 17 talks about resistance from government officials.

How do we deal with this? How do we deal with this? How do we deal with a government that may pass laws about same-sex marriage? How do we deal with liberal tendencies in our MPs? How do we deal with all of that?

Peter says, first and foremost, submit to our leaders. Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men, he says. The Bible says that we should remain loyal and obedient to those putting power over us because the reason they are in power is that it is a delegated power, a delegated authority by God. And friends, this is a real test for your faith. Do you really believe that God is in control over the people that rule us?

Is the Prime Minister or the governing political party really the ultimate power? And you will probably say no. Of course not. I don't believe that, but how do you act? Is the anxiety in your heart about what is happening in our government, what is happening overseas, is the anxiety, does that come from a belief that God really is in control?

Over and over again, the Bible says that it is God who gives power and authority, that it is God who brings up leaders and breaks them down again. Despite what you may think of the government or the laws of this country, we abstain from sin that wears against our souls by submitting ourselves to their authority. Wow. This is what Peter says in verse 16. He says, live as free men, understanding this new freedom we have as Christians, live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil.

Live as servants to God. One of the temptations of us as Christians is we believe in this different way of doing things, this new world order, and so we feel that whatever is said about us, whatever is commanded of us by humans is not as important or doesn't resound or shouldn't resound with us. And Peter says, you guys are free. You guys are free from the laws of sin and death, but do not use this freedom to rebel, to be evil, to be insubordinate. Why?

He says because you are servants of God. Actually, the word there is slaves. You are a slave of God. You are not your own. You have been bought at a price.

You are not your own. You belong to God, and God is saying submit. We have to believe as Christians that God not only controls what is happening, but He will judge and He will rule and He will hold people to account sooner or later. And what we do as Christians is to fight the good fight with our souls, keeping ourselves pure and interceding with our hearts. I realised this week that our society will not be changed and will not adopt the godly heart by enforcing godly principles by law on them.

Outlawing, say for example, gay marriage, outlawing it will not prevent people from indulging in sexual sin, will it? Society cannot be changed from the top down. It is the mission of the church. It is the mission of us to change this society, this world from the bottom up. It cannot work the other way.

It does not. It hardly has ever worked that way. Think about it. If every Australian is a Christian, was a Christian, would we be having the debate about same-sex marriage? We wouldn't.

And so why do we, as Christians, making up 7% of the Australian population, why do we feel that we should be heard or we should have laws adopted that reflect our beliefs? Now, again, I'm not being fatalistic here or or what's the word, surrendering myself already to this cause, but we have to think about where does this anxiety come from? Bible says by loving those in authority over you, you will silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. By loving and submitting to the authorities over us, you will silence the talk of ignorant people. And it makes perfect sense.

Imagine, imagine if Christians showed genuine free love to places, our politicians, our MPs. If we repainted their offices, if we cleaned up the graffiti on their buildings. Imagine if Christians wrote to their mayor or their local member and said to them, we think you're doing is great. Keep up the good work. We appreciate you.

If all the churches in Australia did that, would Australian society and its leaders marginalise or sideline Christians? It's unfortunate that we are perceived to be first and foremost policemen saying this is wrong. This is sinful. Stop doing that. First and foremostly, what Peter says in a similar context to our own, submit to these non-Christian leaders.

Love the brotherhood, he says, fear God and honour the king. That's a really great motto. If you were wanting to be cool, could tattoo that: Love the brotherhood, fear God, honour the king. The same is said in verses 18 to 20 about slaves and their masters.

Slaves, guys. Slaves and their masters, Peter says the same thing. In those days, slaves were coming to faith in huge numbers. They were actually forming a big part of the church in that time, but they had to deal with non-Christian masters, unkind, ungracious masters who didn't understand the mercy of God. They had to deal with being beaten by these people, and Peter says to them, submit to them.

Now thankfully, we don't have that situation in Australia anymore, but I think some of these principles can still be applied in the workplace. We may not have masters, but we may have very unfair bosses, and we may be misused by them. We may be asked to do all sorts of things by them. And Peter says that it's commendable for a person to remain humble in the face of injustice by these masters. If you suffer for being good and endure it, this is commendable before God, he says, and you have made God proud of you.

Again, imagine what witness it would be if you didn't complain like everyone else in your workplace when you were asked to work extra hours. Imagine what impact it would make to those around you if you refused to gossip about your boss. If people saw you being treated poorly, but you gave a 110% of your effort anyway. That would make a huge difference, a huge statement.

Christians must be great employees. Christians must be great workers in all situations. God ultimately sees our deeds and He is proud of us in those situations regardless of anyone else. And then we come to the final part of this chapter that talks about the reason we can, we have been enabled, we have been empowered to live lives of submission. What is the motivation?

What is the reason? What is the power of this? It's because Jesus, it's because Jesus was the ultimate example of this submission. Not only was Jesus the one who brought us into this new healthy life, made it possible for us, made it a possible way for us, paying the cost for our passport into this new kingdom. But He was also the forerunner, the pioneer, the pilot of this new life, of what submission looks like.

In Jesus, we see that although He had every right to retaliate, He didn't, Peter says. Although He had every right to say to God the Father, I will not die for these rebels, He could have righteously said that, friends. He didn't. He had every right to reject us because of who we used to be, but He didn't and He loved us instead. If you ever needed a good motivation, that's a good one.

The motivation to live such good lives as strangers and aliens in this world is because Jesus Christ has ultimately made it possible for us to live it. His sacrifice on the cross caused our sin to be washed clean, caused our hearts to be scrubbed and polished of all our sin. And now we have the privilege of living lives because of that power that resembled Jesus' life. And so we submit our lives because Jesus submitted His life for us. We can abstain from sin that wages war against our souls because Jesus Christ, we believe, crushed the power of sin.

And when He rose again from the dead, He showed us that He is victorious over it, that death and eternal punishment could not hold Him down. That is our power, friends. That is what we have as Christians. That is what we hold to. And so friends, as Christians, we have work to do.

We have lives to live. We have lights to shine in a world that is increasingly scary, in a world that is increasingly dark, we have to shine brighter. Let's do it. Let's live lives of submission, of respect, of honour, love the brotherhood, honour the king, and fear God. Let's pray.

We lift up our hearts and our minds to You this morning, confessing our great need of You to cleanse us, to empower us, to motivate us. Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You that we have had Christians and great heroes of the faith who have gone before us, who have endured terrible things, terrible persecution and oppression, and were faithful to You. We thank You for their examples. We thank You, Lord, that we can see that, that we can be inspired by that.

Father, I pray that in our workplaces, in our attitudes, in the way we speak to one another and to those around us of our country, our people groups, our values as a society, our values as Christians, Lord, as we do all these things, though we are free from all of that, though we have been set free from being bound to it, being guided and enslaved in many ways to that. Though we live as free men, Father, help us, protect us from using that freedom for evil to gossip, to break down, to destroy, to subvert. Father, I pray that we may be good citizens, that we may intercede, that we may love, that we may be on our knees day and night for our enemies. Help us to be as radical as Jesus commanded, to love our enemies, to walk the extra mile, to give the shirt off our backs. Father, may this church, Open House Church, be known to be a church full of Christians radically committed to living a Christian life in a dark, evil, scary world.

We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.