Suffering Like Our Savior

Well, as I mentioned earlier, this is Palm Sunday and I really debated and wrestled with whether I should punt Peter and go to the gospels and unpack one of the accounts of the triumphal entry. And I really was on the verge of doing that. But as I was looking at the next text in one Peter, I couldn't help but notice that if I preached that today, then we would land providentially and perfectly on a verse for Good Friday verse 24 of chapter two. And he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness for by his wounds. You were healed and I couldn't pass that up as a passage for Good Friday. So now the cat's out of the bag. You know what's coming on Friday night. But take your Bibles if you haven't already turned there to one Peter.

And we're going to continue our study this morning, one Peter chapter two, and we're going to be looking at verses 18 through 23. One Peter chapter two verses 18 to 23. And I think this will really serve us well as an introduction to this week as this passage. Really the gravitational pull of this really section is all going towards the person and work of Jesus Christ on the cross. And so it's perfect. One Peter chapter two verse 18. Peter writes, servants be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable for this finds favor for the sake of conscience toward God. A person 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 and return while suffering. He uttered no threats but kept him trusting himself to him who judges righteously. Father, thank you for your precious word. What an appropriate text for us as we launch into the Holy Week this morning and as we anticipate commemorating the death and resurrection of Jesus next weekend, Lord, this is a great text for us to be meditating on. And so I pray that your spirit who inspired Peter to write these words would now illuminate our minds to understand these words and to make application of them and our lives so that we might be more conformed to the image of Christ and that we would be more committed to the cause of Christ and making his name great more than our name. Great, we pray this in His name. Amen.

Well, for the next seven days, Christians all over the world will be celebrating everything that happened to Jesus during the final week of his life and ministry here on earth, including the last Supper and Gethsemane and his arrest and his trial and his crucifixion, his burial, and of course his resurrection. And one of the most popular traditions of passion week is for Christian pilgrims to retrace the steps that Jesus walked through this reach of Jerusalem carrying his own cross from the judgment seat of Pilate, also known as the Praetorium where he was mercilessly beaten and mocked and spit upon to the place where he was brutally crucified. The sacred path is referred to as you remember it, the Via delarosa, which is Latin for the sorrowful way or the way of suffering.

And even though the Bible does not specifically mention the Via delarosa, and even though it's hard to know for certain the exact locations of these holy sites that hasn't stopped people from traveling this processional route marked by 14 stations of the cross, you may have heard of those each commemorating the 14 incidents that took place along the way, some which are mentioned in the scriptures and some which are solely based on Roman Catholic tradition. But whether you've ever had the chance to visit the Villa Delarosa, the way of suffering, every one of us is called to retrace or follow the steps of Jesus and suffer the way he suffered. And I think that's the point that Peter was making to the suffering saints he was addressing in this letter. Notice verse 21, for you have been called for this purpose since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to, what does it say?

Follow in his steps. Now this is the first section in Peter that mentions the word suffer or suffering, but it is a major theme of this letter which is evidenced by how frequently it's mentioned in the remaining chapters. For example, look at chapter three verse 14, but even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed and do not fear their intimidation and do not be troubled. And then verse 17, for it is better if God should will. Its so that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong. And then probably the chunkiest section about suffering is in chapter four, verse 12. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing as though some strange thing were happening to you. But to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing so that also at the revelation of his glory, you may rejoice with exaltation.

If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests on you. Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer or thief or evil doer or a troublesome medler. But if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but it's to glorify God in this name. And then verse 19, therefore those who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful creator in doing what is right. Hopefully you're starting to see all the connections already. It's like Peter was simply repeating himself and just saying the same thing in different words, and then it climaxes in chapter five verse nine, but resist him firm in your faith talking about the devil, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accompanied by your brethren who are in the world. And after you've suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself perfect you, confirm, strengthen, and establish you to him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Now again, lest we think that Peter was simply providing a survival strategy for suffering saints, it might be easy to conclude that as you read through this, as these people needed some advice about suffering, they needed to know how to survive in this culture that was growing increasingly hostile to the gospel. And so Peter wanted to write to them and just tell 'em, Hey, you just need to hunker down and huddle up and hide out while we wait for Jesus to come back. No, no, no, no. We need to realize that another key theme in this letter that runs parallel with the theme of suffering is that of evangelism.

For example, look at chapter three, smack dab in the middle of those two verses I already read verses 14 and verse 17 about suffering. Notice what comes in between. It's like a evangelism sandwich verse 15. But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you yet with gentleness and reverence and keep a good conscience so that the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. And then of course, the passage that led us into our present text back in chapter two, verse 11. Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers who abstained from fleshly lu lust, which weighs war against the soul, keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles so that in the thing in which they slander you as evil doers, they may because of your good deeds as they observe them glorify God in the day of visitation. And we said probably the best way to understand what Peter was saying is he's talking about them getting saved.

And so he was presenting them really a practical strategy for exile evangelism, and he taught them how to leverage their lives for the spread of the gospel by behaving in such a way that is noticeably different than everyone else on planet earth. So that unbelievers will be caught off guard and they'll be convicted of their sin and convinced of the transforming power of the gospel in our lives and perhaps commit their lives to follow Christ themselves. So after Peter gave this general exhortation in verses 11 and 12 of how we're to live as aliens and strangers on the earth, he went on to give specific examples of what that looks like, how good works can be displayed in three broad areas, number one in society, number two in the workplace and number three in the home. And he specifically focused on those under authority. So citizens, we looked at that last time in verses 13 through 17, then he moves on to slaves and then we're going to see here in a few weeks him address wives.

And what he did was he emphasized their duty to submit to their authorities the authorities that God has placed over them. And this is the key word in this section, submit it's choose three times. Verse 13, submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every human institution. Verse 18, servants, be submissive to your masters. Chapter three verse one wise, be submissive to your own husbands. So today we're going to look at the second submit command or second command to submit. And again, last time we looked at what Peter said about the relationship that Christians are to have with government authorities like presidents and vice presidents and governors and judges and police officers. And now in verses 18 through 23, Peter addressed the relationship that Christians are to have with their masters. And I know automatically you're thinking, well, I don't really have a master. I'm not a slave, so I guess this doesn't apply to me.

This was for back then, right? It's not really relevant and practical for today. Well, how about we in principle apply this relationship that Christians started have with their masters to our bosses, to our teachers, our coaches, those that have authority over us in this realm. They're not government officials, but they're authorities in our life. And what he's going to exhort us specifically to do in this text is to respond in a Christ-like way. When our masters mistreat us, anybody had a hard boss to work for, anybody had a really difficult teacher that you had to be taught by anybody, just had a real challenging coach that just wasn't your cup of tea, kind of was hard to play on his team, right? And so what Peter does is he spells out how and why we're to humbly and patiently and quietly endure unfair, unreasonable and deserved suffering.

So I've broken down this passage into three sections and it just kind of falls apart here nicely in verse 18. You have the mandate for suffering and then verses 19 and 20, you have the motive for suffering. And then in verses 21 through 23, you have the model for suffering. So let's look first of all at the mandate for suffering notice verse 18. He says, servants be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. So he addresses servants here and Peter didn't use the Greek word do loss, which is the word I'm sure you're familiar with. For slaves, this is a different word, ote, which refers to household servants. And again, this may be a bit challenging for us to get our minds around because back in the Greco-Roman world in ancient times, slavery was just a way of life and it was essential to the economy.

And if you remember last week I mentioned in Peter's day there were some 60 million slaves in the Roman Empire and in Rome and other larger cities in the empire, over half of the total population during New Testament times were slaves. And they performed a wide variety of tasks in society and they were employed in many occupations from manual labor to professional roles like doctors and teachers. And in light of how often slaves and masters are mentioned or addressed by the writers of the New Testament, we can conclude that a high percentage of the early church were slaves or servants. And yet I find it interesting that rather than instructing them to break free from their slavery, they were encouraged to remain in the social strata they were in when they got saved. Probably the key text would be one Corinthians chapter seven, you can turn there if you'd like to see what Paul had to say about slaves.

One Corinthians chapter seven, verse 20, each man must remain in that condition in which he was called. In other words in which he was saved, were you called while a slave? In other words, did you get saved? Were you a slave when you got saved? Do not worry about it, but if you are able also to become free, rather do that. So if you can somehow become a free man, then go for it. Nothing wrong with that. Verse 22, for he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's free man. In other words, you're free anyway. Even if you are a slave, you're free in the Lord's eyes. Likewise, he was called while free is Christ's slave. So even if you are a free man, you're actually Christ's slave. So either way, it doesn't matter.

He says, you are bought with a Christ. Do not become slaves of men, brethren, each one is to remain with God in that condition in which he was called. You may remember that in Paul's letter to Philemon, who was the host of the house church in Colossi, the church in Colossi met at Philemon's house. He had a slave named Onesimus who had run off. He was a runaway slave and he ended up in Rome. Paul met him, led him to Christ. And remember what counsel he gave to Onesimus, oh, just stay here with me man, that slavery thing, it no longer applies to you. What did he say? You need to go back to Philemon because now he's your brother in Christ. All the more reason why you need to go and submit yourself to him as his slave. And again, that was the mindset there.

Furthermore, slaves were to obey and serve their masters as if they were working for Christ himself. Ephesians six, Colossians three remind us of that. And so the fact that we have verses like Ephesians six and Colossians three, and even one Peter chapter two, it doesn't mean that Paul and Peter were condoning slavery. They were simply seeking to equip believers to live in a culture where slavery was a pervasive and deeply entrenched institution. It is just the way it was. And besides the Bible is not primarily concerned with changing the social order as it is about changing the human heart. And as people's hearts are changed by the gospel, societal norms that are contrary to scripture eventually get through the influence of Christian advocates like William Wilberforce for example, who was the one that God used to abolish slavery in Europe?

And when it comes to the human heart, if the Bible is all about changing the heart, not changing the culture, Peter knew that the natural tendency of the human heart was to resist authority. We all are by nature anti-authority. We don't like authority. We don't want anybody to be the boss of us. We are prone to demand our rights to, that's kind of our default, right? Demand your rights. And we rebel against unfair, unreasonable, undeserved treatment. And so that's why he leads here by saying Servants be submissive to your masters with all respect. Again, this is the same word he used back in verse 13. It's the military term huso that means to fall in rank under an authority again used of a soldier submitting to a superior officer. And we're not only to submit to our bosses and our teachers and our coaches, but we must respect them.

Notice he says, be submissive to your masters. He didn't just say period. No, he said he added with all respect. In other words, we're supposed to respect them in our thoughts, respect them in our words, respect them in our actions and respect them in our attitudes. And notice what else he goes on to say not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable. I mean, let's be honest, it's easy to submit to a nice boss or a nice teacher or a nice coach, someone who is gracious, someone who is kind. He's thoughtful, but it's a whole lot harder to submit to and respect a mean boss or a mean teacher or a mean coach who is harsh, who's critical, who's unkind, who's overbearing, and even maybe even irrational at times.

In fact, that word unreasonable is the Greek word scoliosis or scoliosis I should say, from where we get our English word scoliosis, which means what? The curvature of the spine. And so what Paul or who Paul was referring to was somebody who was crooked, perhaps even corrupt. I mean, this is maybe your boss is a crook. Now obviously if you work for a dishonest employer, you're not obligated to go along with company policy or follow any directives if they violate God's word or even violate your conscience. And if you can't submit to them with a clear, then you can appeal to them that I can't do that, or I'm not going to go along with that, or I can't be a part of that. And if they reject your appeal, well then you have to find another job, which sadly, quite a few folks were put in that position during this whole COVID-19 thing when it came around to the vaccine mandates. And I know we had the privilege of writing a few letters for religious exemption appealing to the employer, whoever it was, to let this person based on their conscience that's informed from the scriptures that the Bible teaches us that we need to not go against our consciences. It would be sin for us to do things that we believe are wrong for us. And so it was a joy to write those and to provide those for people who wanted to make that appeal. And thankfully many of them did get exemptions.

I think there's a place for union representatives governing boards, right? These serve a legitimate role in negotiating certain things and getting certain things improved in the workplace, but strikes and walkouts and sick outs and mutiny by employees against their employers. I'm just going to go on record and say are unbiblical, they're on Christ-Like even if the employer is treating you unfairly and unreasonably, that's what the tech says. You say, well, what if I'm part of a union and expected to strike along with the rest of the union members? And I'm like, what do I do? Should I go? Should I stay home? I mean they're going to not think I'm loyal to the, again, some of you have been put in that situation. You might be put in that situation in the future. I'm not sure what I would tell you. I would probably want to hear more details first before I gave you some counsel about what you should do.

But in the meantime, I remember a friend of mine who played in the minor leagues, minor league baseball, and he said that it was required that if a fight broke out on the field, you had to come out of the dugout, the bullpen, the outfield, wherever you were, and jump in the fray because you had to defend your teammates, right? And so you couldn't just kick back and say, oh, Jesus wouldn't do that. I'm going to sit back in the dugout. Well, you would be kicked out of the dugout and possibly kick off the team if you didn't get out there and mix it up a little bit. So this guy told me that what he would do whenever there was a fight on the field and somebody, a pitcher being somebody, and the guy came out and wanted to fight the pitcher and everybody benches cleared, he'd run out there and find another guy looking like him on the side and grab him and just kind of dance with him a little bit. And just as the fight went on and prayed that it would end quick, never had to throw a punch.

I mean this is really practical because for Christians, for pilgrims on this planet, at the end of the day it's not about getting a raise or a promotion, but maintaining the testimony of Christ. There's more than a paycheck at stake. I mean we're talking about the reputation of Jesus and what a powerful witness to our coworkers or classmates or teammates. When everyone else in the break room or the classroom or the locker room is badmouthing the boss or the teacher or the coach, and you maintain a respectful attitude and demonstrate your confidence in God's control over all the problems and adverse conditions everyone else is worrying about and griping about, you're going to stick out like a sore thumb and they're going to wonder what's different about you.

And they may not like it at first, why you're not joining in with them and throwing the boss or the teacher, the coach under the bus. But when push comes to shove, they're likely going to come and seek you out when the wheels fall off their life and they need to find somebody that is on track and they can't get you out of their head because they watched you do something that was totally unnatural and uncommon and otherworldly. So that's the mandate for suffering. Now let's look at the motive for suffering, the motive for suffering. Verse 19, for this finds favor if for the sake of conscience toward God, A person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.

So when people insult you or inflict pain on you for no reason, and they say all kinds of mean things about you and do all sorts of hurtful things to you and verbally and physically abuse you without cause, rather than getting angry and retaliating, we need to remain conscious of God and everything we know to be true about him. Notice he says, for this finds favor if for the sake of conscience toward God, a person bears up under sorrows and suffering unjustly. In other words, when we are mindful of God's sovereignty over all things and that he hears and sees everything that happens to us because he's omnipresent and that he has the power to protect us and provide for us because he's omnipotent and that he is a good and faithful God and that nothing can ever separate us from his loving care, it's only then will we be able to endure unfair treatment by our superiors.

And so rather than responding like everyone else in the world these days who seem to be outraged by everything, right, we live in the culture of outrage. Look at all these injustices. We need to be outraged by the injustices that are being committed against me and against you and against other people. I think it's clear evidence of God's grace in our lives when we bear up under any and all mistreatment. And it's not that we shouldn't confront injustices and try to correct injustices and hold people accountable to do what is the right thing. But what matters most though is that we don't blow our testimony for Christ in the eyes of the watching world, in the process of fighting for justice and working towards change.

Notice verse 20, he says, for what credit is there if when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure with patience? I mean you don't get any credit. You didn't any brownie points or glory for enduring a beating that you deserved because of your disobedience. And what's even more? God doesn't get any glory from it. In other words, it's a bad testimony that doesn't cause others to want to glorify God by turning from their life of sin and embracing Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior. That guy's a knucklehead. He deserves that. I don't want to be anything like that guy.

I think Peter's words are reminiscent. I think of the words that he heard Jesus say during the sermon on the plane, which is Luke's account of some say it's the Sermon on the Mount could be the same sermon. I think it's a different time, different location, same content. Just like I might preach this sermon here and then I get invited to preach somewhere else. I might preach the same sermon somewhere else, right? A different day, different time, same content. Luke chapter six, listen to this verse 32 talking about loving our enemies. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you?

Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount, but love your enemies and do good and lend expecting nothing in return and your reward will be great and you'll be sons of the most high for himself is kind to and grateful and evil men, in other words, do what only you can do. Any unbeliever can love someone who loves them is good to those who are good to them, gives money to those who give money to him. But you set yourself apart, be radically different by loving and doing good and lending, expecting nothing in return, even doing it to your enemies. And you're going to prove that there's something different about you. And that's something different is you are a son or daughter of the living God. You are a chip off the old block because even God is kind to and grateful and evil men, you're just doing what your daddy would do back in one Peter verse 20.

But he says, well, credit is there if when you sin and hearts for you, you endure it with patience, big whoop, you do right? That's accomplishing nothing other than maybe being a bad witness for Christ. But if when you do what is right and suffer for it and you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. In other words, when your good is evil spoken of or your good deeds are punished, no good deed goes unpunished. You've heard that expression or you're falsely accused or you're misunderstood or you're mishandled or you're maligned rather than arrogantly, lashing out in anger and seeking to vindicate yourself, which is again is our natural tendency. We need to choose to humbly, patiently, quietly endure it. And when we do that, it pleases God. It makes God smile, it brings a smile to God's face. And when he looks down on one of his children who're getting beat up on, not necessarily literally, perhaps verbally, mentally, emotionally, getting beat up upon and they're hanging in there and they're patiently enduring it for doing the right thing, it puts a smile on God's face and he's thinking, he's not going to say, you're not going to hear it until you get to heaven, but he's thinking, Hey, well done.

Good job man. Good hustle taking one for the team down there.

And I think at the same time, it not only brings a smile to God's face, it may perhaps bring others to Christ because again, it catches the attention of unbelievers around us because our reaction to unfair and undeserved treatment is so uncommon. It's so again, otherworldly. What planner are you from? Well, you got it. Not this one. And God may use that conversation to a open up a door to the gospel and for them to come to Christ. And so we have the mandate for suffering and the motive for suffering. And now lastly, let's look at the model for suffering, the model for suffering.

I think what's going on here in verses 21 to 23, while Peter was exhorting Christians to suffer for the sake of righteousness, who naturally came to his mind, Jesus, Peter had been an eyewitness of Christ's suffering. He watched it all go down. He was there and so he couldn't think of a greater example to use to show us what it looks like to patiently endure unreasonable and an unjust treatment than Jesus because there's no one else who has ever been treated more unfairly, more unreasonably, more deservedly than Jesus. And yet he humbly submitted to all of it and patiently endured it and responded with meekness.

Notice how he begins this section introducing the model. He says, for you have been called for this purpose. What purpose to suffer unfairly, unreasonably, undeservedly. That's what you signed up for when you became a Christian. This word called of course is the same word that was used in verse nine, so that you may proclaim the excellence of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. In other words, it's another word for salvation. And so when you got saved, this was part of the package and suffering is a normal, natural part of being a Christian. What did Jesus say? He didn't invite you to follow him on false terms. He didn't hide the small print. He said, if anyone would come after me, let him what, deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me that this was going to be no easy decision, no easy path.

Christ himself endured unimaginable suffering, and he warned those who committed their lives to follow him, that they too would experience suffering and persecution. Listen to what Jesus said in John chapter 15, John chapter 15, talking to his disciples and helping them understand their relationship to the world. He said in John 1518, if the world hates you, you know that it has hated me. Before, it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you're not of the world, but I chose you out of the world because of this, the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, A slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. And if they've kept my word, they'll also keep yours also.

And they got it. The disciples got it when the disciples were flogged for preaching about him. In Acts chapter five, it says that they rejoice that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for his name. They're like, wow, he told us this was going to happen. How cool is that? When Paul got saved, the first thing Jesus told him through Ananias was how much he would suffer for his namesake. Paul told the believers in Philippi that to them it had been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake. Philippians 1 29.

In other words, Hey, are you ready to believe? Yeah, I'm ready to believe. Okay, then you're also ready to suffer then, right? He invited his young disciple Timothy to join with him in suffering for the gospel. Two Timothy one, eight. Come on Timothy, don't be timid. Don't be shy. This is what we do. This is what it means to be a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not an easy chair. And then later in that same letter, two Timothy three 12, he said that all those who live godly in Christ Jesus, what will happen to 'em, they will be persecuted. That might be persecuted, will be persecuted. So it's not a matter of if we'll be persecuted or mistreated, but when and how we will be persecuted and mistreated.

And remember who's writing this, by the way, one Peter, ironically, it was Peter when Jesus told his disciples that he was going to suffer many things and eventually be killed, Peter was the one who tried to convince him to avoid that. He said, that'll never happen to you. I'll never over my dead body. And then of course, Jesus said, get thee behind me, Satan, you missed the point, Peter, but he got it. That's all that matters. He might've missed it then, but he got it now. He understands it now. He says, for you've been called for this purpose since Christ also suffered for you, leaving an example for you to follow in his steps. So Jesus modeled how we're to respond to unfair, unreasonable, undeserved treatment. He was the perfect example of patient submission to unjust suffering, and we are to be imitators of Christ.

That word example there, interesting word, it means literally writing under. And maybe you remember when you were in grade school and they were teaching us how to write in cursive, remember that? And sometimes they would put something up on the board perfectly written, and we were to go up there and kind of copy it and just kind of mimic it right underneath it. But then there was other times when they would give you a pattern with perfect penmanship, maybe little dots that you kind of had to trace, and you would put a piece of paper over that on top of that, and you would do your very best to trace the letters as closely as possible. That's the idea here.

Jesus is that pattern that we're to trace and we're to follow as closely in his steps as possible, we're to be as much like him as humanly possible. And then notice how Peter proceeded now to lay before us, the passion of Christ as the ultimate example of enduring unfair, undeserved suffering. And again, even though Peter was an eyewitness of the sufferings of Christ, he actually says that in chapter five, one, I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder and the witness of the sufferings of Christ, rather than using his own words. I love how he quoted from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah's unparalleled portrait of the suffering servant found in Isaiah 53. And that's why in your Bible, it's probably all capped. Verse 22, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth? This is a direct quote from Isaiah 53 verse nine. This is one of five references from Isaiah 53 that Peter included in the next four verses verses 22 through 25.

And so what does it say? Who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. Jesus didn't suffer for his own sin because he didn't have any. Second Corinthians 5 21. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf. Hebrews four 15, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are yet what? Without sin. One. John three, five. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins and in him there is no sin.

So Jesus lived all his days on this planet without ever sinning once in thought, word deed or motive. And if you can say that, perfect thoughts, perfect words, perfect deeds, perfect motives, totally pure all the time. No, I didn't think so. Only applies to Jesus. So because he was completely innocent, totally innocent, it was the greatest injustice ever committed in the history of the world, that he was wrongly, wrongfully arrested, wrongfully tried and wrongfully executed. You think about that, that's a term that we use in our society. Well, that was a wrongful arrest or that was a wrongful imprisonment.

There was no greater miscarriage of justice than the death of Christ. And this is the amazing thing to me, that even though he could have easily cleared his name and escaped it all, and in the process totally annihilate all his accusers with just a word, what did he say to Peter? Hey, Peter, put away your sword, man. What are you doing? I could call legions of angels if I wanted to and they'd be way more effective than you and your little sword. Put it away, man. What did he say to Pilate? Hey, Pilate, if this was your kingdom, you could do whatever you want, but it's not your kingdom. It's my kingdom, and I'm only here because I want to be here. I'm letting you do what you're doing because I want to be a sacrifice for the sins of men.

And so he chose to suffer in silence. Again, Isaiah 53, 7, he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth like a lamb that has led to slaughter and like a sheep that is silent before its shears. Notice and while being reviled, verse 23, he did not revile in return and while suffering, he uttered no threats even though he was relentlessly abused, relentlessly abused, verbally and physically by the Jewish religious leaders who were jealous. And the cruel Roman soldiers, the irreverent thief on the cross, the blood thirsty crowds, they all took their turn, reviling him, causing suffering. He never retaliated or attempted to defend himself before the high priest says he was silent before the high priest wouldn't even answer the high priest.

He wouldn't answer Pilate. He had absolutely nothing to say to Herod. And so rather than fighting back, he determined to let God fight his battle for him. He didn't try to vindicate himself because he was confident that God would vindicate him in his way and in his time, which by the way would be three days later at the resurrection. Amen. So notice verse 23, the last phrase, but instead of revealing and threatening, he kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously. He's going to challenge us to do the same thing in chapter four, verse 19. We already read this. Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful creator in doing what is right.

That word entrust there but kept entrusting himself. It means to commit or to hand over to someone. The same word I think this is interesting was used in the context of Christ's arrest, trial and crucifixion. The Jews handed over Jesus to Pilate and Pilate returned the favor and he handed over Jesus to the Jews that didn't even mention the fact that Judas handed over Jesus to the Romans soldiers. But ultimately Jesus handed over himself to God. Luke 2346, the last words recorded out of his mouth. Father, into your hands, I what commit my spirit. And so whenever we face unfair, unreasonable, undeserved, suffering, we need to prayerfully and trust or commit the situation into the hands of the Lord and acknowledge that it's no longer in our hands, it's out of our hands. Lord, it's in your hands. That's a great place to be, right? Because we typically take matters what into our own hands, and we try to fix it ourself and vindicate ourselves and defend ourselves.

And so we need to commit it and trust it and ultimately ourselves into the hands of the Lord. But in order to do that, it requires us to be completely dependent on God and to totally trust that he is in absolute control of the situation. And he's the all seeing, all knowing, all wise, perfectly righteous judge who has literally seen and heard all the evidence. And even more importantly, he even knows the motives of everyone's hearts who are involved. And he will not let the guilty go and punished and he will vindicate us in his way and in his time. And in the meantime, he has the power to protect us and he will grant us the grace we need to endure the unfair, unreasonable, undeserved suffering.

I think that's what it means to entrust yourself to him who judges righteously. And it's only when you have this kind of confidence in God that you'll be able to resist that temptation to defend yourself to retaliate. In fact, chapter three, verse nine, he says, really reminiscent of what Paul said in Romans 12, not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead, which again is the most familiar passage probably is Romans chapter 12, verse 17. Paul said, never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men if possible, as far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God. For it is written, vengeance is mind, i'll repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink for in so doing, you'll heat burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

We won't turn there, but you may want to just write down two Samuel, two Samuel 16 verses five to 14. This is a good little case study. This is the story of David and Shiia where David was fleeing Jerusalem because his son, Absalom had rebelled and had gotten everybody to follow him. And so he was out for blood. He wanted to kill his father. And so David had to flee from his own son who had basically taken over the kingdom from him, taken away the kingdom from him. And as he was leaving, going out of Jerusalem, down over the Kidron Valley and up the Mount of Olives, he was confronted by this dude named Shiai who just was a knucklehead. And he just berated David and maligned him, and accused, falsely accused him, all sorts of things. Hey, you deserve this. This is all your fault.

This is good thing. This has been a long time of coming for you. And David could have immediately retaliated with deadly force. He was flanked by his mighty men and the mighty men. You don't mess with the mighty men. In fact, one of the mighty men says, Hey David, lemme just go take his head off. Just lemme go take his head off. And I mean, that probably made David feel pretty good, right? Yeah. I got guys ready to come to my defense and he said, Hey, stand down man. This is of the Lord. This is of the Lord. He's got a purpose. And so rather than getting defensive or getting revenge, David had the faith to believe that God would eventually right this wrong and repay those who were mistreating him, not just Shiai, but also his son, Absalom, who by the way, both ended up being killed.

And David outlived both of them. And I remember when I was studying that several years ago, I came to this conclusion that not responding to our critics is not an admission of guilt. That's typically what people think. Oh, they're not saying anything that means they're guilty. No, no. It's not an admission of guilt. It's an act of faith. It's an act of faith that God will vindicate us in this life or the next. And I bring up David because I think he's a great example for us to follow. But we also know that he's ultimately just an Old Testament type of Christ or a picture of Jesus, who is the best example for us to follow. And David's life and ministry foreshadowed Christ's life and ministry. In fact, one commentator called David's Escape from Absalom across the Kidron Valley up the Mount Olives. That was his villa Delarosa. Now, that was his path of suffering.

Well, perhaps you are walking on your own via Delarosa this morning that you are suffering unjustly, reasonably undeservedly. And let me encourage you by reminding you that no matter how severe your personal via delarosa might be, it doesn't come close to the severity of the suffering that Christ and endure at the cross. And just in closing, turn back just a couple pages to Hebrews just a couple pages back. Jump over James Hebrews chapter 12, a familiar text. Hebrews chapter 12, verse two. The author gives us this exhortation. He says, fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God for consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. And notice verse four, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against it.

In other words, they haven't taken you out in your front yard and crucified you yet. So hang in there. Don't grow weary. Don't lose heart. If the sinless savior endured all that he did for us, shouldn't we as sinful people expect to have to endure a little bit of suffering ourselves? And he didn't deserve it. He didn't deserve to suffer. We do. And so while we suffer, we need to look to Christ, be amazed at the suffering he endured to deliver us from the suffering that we deserve, suffering the consequences of our sin for all eternity in hell.

And I think it's also very comforting to remember that because of what he suffered during his time here on this earth, he now serves as a merciful high priest who gets it. He can sympathize with our suffering. He's been there, done that. And that's why the writer of Hebrew says, Hey, go to the throne of grace to find mercy and grace to help you in your times of need. Let's pray. Father, we are truly blessed whenever we suffer unfair, unreasonable suffering because it's then that we are most like Christ. And so I pray, Lord, that this text would just put us in the right frame of mind as we move into the passion week, that we would do what the writer of Hebrews says, that we would fix our eyes on Jesus, that we would consider him and what he endured for us, so that we would not have to suffer the consequences of our own sin. And that it would cause our hearts to be thankful and joyful. And that would also just grant us a second wind. If we are in a season of suffering that we would just clinging to the example of Christ and we would want to follow his example. We would want to walk in his steps as it were, and in doing so that we would be an example of Christ, a bright testimony, a powerful witness for Christ in this lost and dying world. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.