Well, thanks Jake and Sarah for that good song, good words to that song, Christ in me. That's the key to the Christian life. 

I wanted to mention before we start a call from Philip Samuel last night in India. They're doing wonderful work there in Gunter. Philip and Chiffon are there, and then Stevens who was here also in Goa, and they're printing two hundred thousand gospel tracks a month this year. So those guys are out handing out tracks, and he said there's a lot of demand for gospel tracks, so they're looking for support for that if that would be on your heart to do an extra gift. But I just wanted to mention that so you can pray for that work that they're doing to spread the gospel in India. Wonderful, wonderful mission that they have there.

Well, we're working our way through 1 Peter, and we're in chapter two. Last week in our study, we looked at an attitude of submission and specifically at submission to government. Thankfully we don't have to preach on that again this week. Peter's writing to a group of faithful believers, to Jews scattered throughout the Gentile regions of Asia Minor. He's writing to encourage them and to exhort them to persevere through these afflictions and to set their hope on the coming of Christ. At the same time, they are to be living as witnesses for the gospel of Jesus Christ as long as God has them here on this earth. 

We learned that this witness for them and for us is a witness of word, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, and a witness of deed in the life that they live. The interesting fact that we see in the rest of this epistle, beginning in chapter 2, is that Peter is teaching us that the way to endure persecution and the way to be a witness in this corrupt, sinful world is by having an attitude of submission. 

God has ordained relationships between people in His creation, and we find that each and every one of these relationships exists by His design as an authority-submission relationship. Whether that be government to citizen, employer to employee, husband to wife, parent to child, elder in the body of the church, every relationship is designed this way. God's plan for the one in authority is to be a servant, to have a servant's heart, and for the one in submission to have an attitude of submission, to work and relate as unto the Lord in every relationship that we are blessed with. 

This is contrary to the heart and mind of the natural man. The natural man and Adam has a spirit of rebellion. He's not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can he be. When authority confronts the carnal man, something in him bristles, resists, and rebels. 

We see this so clearly with the principle of the law. Even from a young toddler, we don't have to teach a baby or a toddler to disobey or to be selfish. The other day, Silas was doing something he shouldn't be, and I got down close to his face and said, "You need to stop doing that." He looked me in the eye and said, "No." A child can be minding his own business, he can be doing his own thing, and you give him a law – don't do this, don't touch that – and something rises up in him, a desire to rebel. This is true of all men in Adam. 

We'll see this by example in the area of employer-employee in our study this morning. It's not natural to have an attitude of submission. It's spiritual. It is a fruit of the Holy Spirit as we abide in Christ and entrust ourselves to Him who judges righteously. We're going to see this very example from Jesus in our text this morning. 

Let's look at our text, 1st Peter 2, verse 18: “Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. For this is commendable if, because of conscience toward God, one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.” 

“For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow His steps, who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth, who when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

I've given you four points on your outline. First, an attitude of submission. Second, work as unto the Lord. Third, to this you were called. And fourth, an example of submission. 

When we think of an attitude of submission in our culture, in our time, perhaps one of the most difficult areas of application is in the workplace. Peter says in our text that we are as employees to be submissive to our bosses. This existed in a master-bond servant relationship in Peter's time, but the principles are applicable to our workplace as well. 

The attitude of submission in the workplace is an absolutely foreign idea in our world. It was bad when I was a young man, but now I think it's even worse. I grew up, as I've told you before, in Anderson, Indiana. General Motors had 26 plants in my hometown and employed 24,000 people in 1971. None of those plants are there now, and none of those jobs. They're all torn down. Anderson was a booming place with an astounding industrial production system and lots and lots of good jobs. 

Working at what we called Generous Motors was a guarantee of a good salary and benefits and retirement package, health care – the whole ball of wax. But there was anything but an attitude of submission. The attitude was always and forever to get everything you can from the company. The unions were very strong when I was young, and they got pretty much everything they asked for, and there was a lot of corruption and abuse. 

I had friends whose fathers worked in tool and die. They worked night shifts, and anytime we needed something made, we could put in a request – deer stands, trapping stakes, whatever we wanted fabricated. They would do it and deliver the goods. And these guys were making sixty to seventy thousand dollars in 1980 with amazing benefits. There was constant talk of sleeping their shifts away, of stealing, and even clocking out and going home. 

There was even one occasion where two men each got hired at two different plants, and for months they would each go to one plant and clock each other in, then switch plants the next day. They each drew two paychecks for over a year before they were caught. This was the attitude at General Motors, and perhaps that's why trucks are $60,000 now. 

But let me ask you this: What is a Christian to do in such an environment? Union strikes, protests, there's an outright disgust with corporations and employers today. No one has to work, and no one seems to want to work. And if they work, they expect to be paid. 

Well, when I was a kid, I'd bail hay all day long for a dollar an hour. I was talking to Doug the other day, and he said, “You know, we're starting to sound like old men.” I bailed hay all day long for a dollar an hour, sometimes getting a meal. My first job was pumping gas for $2.85 an hour, and we were expected to work. You never got caught sitting down. 

My wife and I were talking about this the other day and all the jobs we applied for, that we interviewed for when we were young. We never asked about what we were going to get paid. You just took what they gave you and hoped you could get a job. It was a different attitude back then. And in all my life, I never made more than $17 an hour, but now I can't get a kid to work on my farm for 20 bucks an hour. They just say no, except for Sam, because he has to, because he's my son-in-law. 

No one has a desire to work, and apparently, no one has a need to work in the context of our society today except the old guys. You see this more and more – people are hiring people in their 60s and 70s because they know they're going to show up and they know they're going to work. It's a sad situation in the work world. There's anything but an attitude of submission. So how is a Christian to respond? What is our attitude to be? 

Listen to Peter's words again, and I want you just to feel the contrast for God's plan for us in our jobs: “Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God, one endures grief suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.” 

These are truly amazing words. When you are beaten for your faults, who here can give a testimony to being physically punished for iniquities in the workplace? Beaten with rods? We hear all the time, “My boss is a jerk.” You don't know how bad my employer is. How bad is he? Are you being beaten for what is doing good? Are you persecuted for no reason at all? Because if you are, Peter says, take it patiently. This is commendable before God. 

In fact, he says, that if you are a Christian in such a world as this and you work hard, and you mind your own business, and you have an attitude of submission and respect toward authority with all fear, then guess what? You'll be singled out, perhaps persecuted, not necessarily by your boss, but maybe by your co-workers. 

I experienced this working for the county government and then for the federal government. I came off the farm; my dad had hours of chores for us every day after school. When I went to work for the government, I worked like I had been raised, and the other men working there took me aside, and they said, “Hey man, what are you doing? You're making us look bad! Just take it easy, chill out.” 

This was no great persecution, but the message was clear: slack off, quit working harder, you're not gonna have a nice time here at work. In this world, if you show up on time, if you respect your boss and give him proper reverence, if you work as unto the Lord and give it your all, then you will stand out. You will be noticed; you will be successful in your job. This is God's design for you in the workplace: to endure a persecution, to be different, but most of all, to be a witness. 

We aren't experiencing the things that these believers in Peter's time were experiencing: suffering for righteousness' sake to the point of being beaten and whipped. But this is the standard of God, not only to the gentle, he says, but also to the harsh, to the abusive. And if you suffer for doing good, for being a witness for Christ, and you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. 

In light of the grace and mercy and amazing blessings we enjoy in the workplace today, in the wages and benefits and protections, we enjoy even working at the most menial of jobs, what should our attitude be? How should we work? Are we thankful? Are we reverent with all fear? Do we work not for our boss, but as unto the Lord? Do we have a view to witness by how we work, what we say, the attitude we have? Are we praying for that opportunity to witness with our words as we continually witness by our deeds in our workplace? This is the idea. This is the attitude of submission as we work unto the Lord. 

Next, in our text, we see that suffering should be expected in this world in every area of our lives as we live and witness for Jesus. “For to this we were called.” I don't know if I like that idea. He says, “We were called to suffer.” 

Verse 21: “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow His steps, who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth, who when He was reviled did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously.” 

Pastor Krenn said to me once, “The thing that we as Christians in America fear the most is losing our comfortable lifestyle.” I think about this quite often in the context of the political turmoil and threats in our country, in the context of corruption and power even in local governments and regulators, the desire of some to change our way of life, to move from independence and self-reliance in the capitalistic system to a full dependence on government in the communist system. Thinking about how that's worked out through history, it's easy to get worked up about these things. 

It's easy to think about the temporal threats, to become anxious about losing our comfortable lifestyle and experiencing injustice and abuse from a tyrannical government or employers. But Peter's words should totally shock our whole worldview, our way of thinking about how things should be in the context of our country and how we have grown up and the absolute prosperity and ease of life that we have experienced. 

Is what we've had for the last 60 years or so in America how life should be on this earth? Should this be our expectation for life? We appreciate it, we thank God for it; we see it as a blessing. But I'm not sure if it's a blessing or a curse in consideration of eternal things in the Gospel and the kingdom. Prosperity tends to make us self-sufficient and complacent, fat, and sassy. 

But one thing we can say for sure is that from these words of Peter, this is not the normal norm for Christians in this world, in history, or in the world in most places today. The norm is suffering. I'll never forget when Guy and I were with Philip on a bus going up to a village, and Philip says, “It's good that there are eight of us, because sometimes it gets a little rough in this village.” And Guy looked at me and he looked at Philip and he said, “What do you mean, a little rough?” You know, we're not used to that, but in India, they experience persecution for their faith. 

The promise for the one who desires to live godly in Christ is suffering, is persecution, is trouble, affliction, trials, tribulations. The fact that we have not experienced this in our time and our place is an anomaly, and I'm afraid it will come to an end. Maybe that's why it's so hard for us to think about, let alone apply, the principle of submission to accept the idea of unjust suffering. 

I mean, think about our culture. If you are offended in any way, what do you do? Sue them. I'm astounded every time I travel through a city and see the dozens and dozens of billboards with lawyers advertising their services on them. And it gets stranger and stranger. “Get what you deserve,” “We're here to fight for you,” “I'm a cool lawyer, I ride a Harley.” And then you'll see one that says, “Injured? Call me! I'm an old gunfighter from the Wild West.” 

All these lawyers – we live in the most litigious society that has ever existed. The first reaction of an American, if the slightest wrong happens to him, the least injustice, is to sue. I remember when the Swedes first came, and Anders pulled me aside, and he said, “I just want you to know, we can't sue you.” I said, “What do you mean?” He said, “Well, the law in Sweden is if you climb a tree and you fall out, you should have known you might fall out. Don't climb the tree if you don't want to fall out. So set your mind at ease; we can't sue you.” I thought, well, that's a bonus, you know, that's good. 

What does Peter say is God's will for us? “Take it patiently, suffer with faith and trust in the sovereign God of the universe. If you suffer for righteousness' sake, this is commendable before God.” In fact, if you are beaten because of your identification with Christ, just accept it with joy. And we say, “What? What do you mean by that?” 

Turn to Acts 5 with me. This is a story of the arrest of Peter and the other apostles, the miraculous release from prison, after which they went and preached in the temple again, and they were arrested again. 

Acts 5:27 says, “When they had brought them, they set them before the council, and the high priest asked them, saying, 'Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us.'” 

But Peter and the other apostles answered and said, “We ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you murdered by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.” 

When they heard this, they were furious and plotted to kill them. Then one in the council stood up, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in respect by all the people, and commanded them to put the apostles outside for a little while. And he said to them, “Men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what you intend to do regarding these men. For some time ago, Thutis rose up claiming to be somebody. A number of men, about 400, joined him. He was slain, and all who obeyed him were scattered and came to nothing. After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census and drew away many people after him. He also perished, and all who obeyed him were dispersed. And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone. For if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing. But if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it, lest you even be found to fight against God.” 

So here we have a little common sense speech, and in verse 40, it says they agreed with him. They agreed that they should let them alone. But look at what it says next: “When they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go.” They determined that they should let them alone, so they beat them—unjust suffering. 

And how did the apostles respond? Verse 41: “So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. And daily in the temple and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.” 

They were preaching Christ, being witnesses, and for this, they were arrested, warned, beaten. And what did they do? They rejoiced. And they kept on preaching Christ. We were called to suffer. Jesus promised that we would suffer because we are identified with Him. 

And we can hide that. We can keep our mouth shut. We can go along to get along. We can slack off at work like everyone else and cuss the boss and fit in. Or we can live out our faith in every aspect of our lives and sing the praises of Him who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light and work as unto the Lord and be a witness. 

But it might cost us. There may be some sort of persecution, alienation, backbiting, whispering, joking at our expense—probably not beating, but some sort of suffering for righteousness' sake. And if there is, then Peter says, “Take it patiently. Rejoice that your witness is effective, that God has counted you worthy to suffer for His sake.” 

Don't have a me-centered, natural man attitude. Have a supernatural, Christ-centered, eternal-focused attitude of submission in every relationship of our lives. Let's entrust ourselves to God. Let's believe and obey Him and see things the way He does—the truth about who we are and the world in which we live as strangers and pilgrims, but as ambassadors for the King. 

We see in that Acts passage that we have an example in the life of the apostles. And in our text, we see that we have the ultimate example of trusting God, of an attitude of submission, of obedience, even to the point of death on the cross. My brothers and sisters, this was the ultimate unjust suffering in the person and work of Christ. He is our example of submission. And that's why Peter brings up the cross here at this point in his letter. 

Look at verse 21: “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow His steps, who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth; who when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously.” 

Jesus is the example of submission. Peter says, “For to this you were called, this is the will of God, that we suffer for righteousness' sake.” Jesus is the ultimate example of this, of faith, of trust in God and His will through the greatest injustice ever suffered by any man who has ever lived. We are to follow His steps. This word means literally, to write under. It was used of a child tracing over a paper, following the example underneath. And so we are to trace our steps over the pattern that Jesus set as an example. 

Verse 22 says, “Who committed no sin.” Jesus was sinless, perfect before a holy God. To really understand the magnitude of the unjustness and extent of Jesus' suffering, we must understand who He is. Jesus is God. He's the Creator of all things. He's the Sustainer of all things. He's the King of kings and Lord of lords. And He is innocent. He is completely sinless. And He is omnipotent. He has all power. 

I think of James and John in Luke 9. You remember that passage in Luke 9? It says, “It came to pass when the time had come for Him to be received up that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. He sent messengers before His face, and as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans to prepare for Him. But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem.” 

So they wouldn't receive Jesus. And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?” But He turned and rebuked them and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them.” And they went to another village. 

When they beat Jesus, when He suffered through false accusations, through a mock trial, through illegal trials, when they plucked His beard and put on that crown of thorns and scourged Him and laid the cross on His bloody back, at any moment He could have called down fire from heaven or a legion of angels. He had ultimate power, the resources to exact judgment at any moment. And yet Peter says, “When He was reviled, He did not revile in return. When He was threatened, He did not threaten.” 

I was recently told about a man who lives in our township who, when he was cut off on Highway 2, followed the man to Walmart, followed him into the store, and when he caught up with him, punched him in the head. This guy's in his seventies. That's the way the natural man reacts when he's offended. 

Cursing, reviling, threatening, violence—can you imagine what would happen in our world if men had the power at their disposal that Jesus has? It's like Stevens told me when he was here from India. He said, “If Indians had guns, because I had guns laying around my house, that always intrigues them,” he says, “If Indians had guns, there would be no more Indians.” 

When we suffer the slightest—what do we call the little offenses now? Microaggressions, isn't that it? They had to make a word for not really being offended, but wanting to be offended. We're looking to be offended, and when someone does the slightest thing, we're ready to call down fire from heaven. 

But Jesus was sinless. He suffered the greatest injustice of all time. In 1 Peter 3:18, Peter says, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” The just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God. In 2 Corinthians 5:21, Paul said, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 

He knew no sin. He committed no sin. When He was reviled, threatened, He kept silent, never defending Himself. What a lesson this is for us. I remember years ago, I was having some great difficulty in my life, and an unjust accusation was brought against me by a pastor that I had unfortunately associated myself with. It was an extremely difficult time. I remember calling Pastor Krenz, and he said to me, “John, you can't defend yourself.” And he pointed me to this passage in Peter. “You cannot defend yourself.” 

Everything in me wanted to fight back, wanted to make a defense for the lies that were being told about me, for the ill intent and malice brought against me. But I knew defending myself would only make things worse. I had to entrust myself to Him who judges righteously. This is the example of Jesus. He was innocent. They could find no sin in Him. He suffered to a greater extent than we ever could, because He never yielded to temptation. He was tempted further, suffered more, was even separated from the Father as He bore the sins of the world. 

And yet He opened not His mouth. All of these great quotes from Isaiah 53, Peter uses here, the great description of Isaiah of the suffering Messiah. And here's what I want you to understand. Here's the take-home message: what Jesus did was He kept on trusting. He kept on entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously. The answer for unjust suffering is to endure, to take it patiently. And we do that by handing it over to God. 

By handing your life, yourself, over to God and trusting His will. Believing, entrusting yourself to the One who will judge, who will make all things right, but for now, whose will is for us to suffer as Jesus suffered. Jesus kept on handing Himself over to God, trusting God and His will, and He fully and finally handed Himself over on the cross. 

Turn over to Luke 23, Luke 23 at verse 44: “Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, 'Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit.' Having said this, He breathed His last.” 

He kept committing Himself to Him who judges righteously throughout His life on this earth. He said, “I always do what pleases the Father.” He trusted the Father, and God did mighty works through Him. He always sought the Father's will and trusted that God's will was right and best even when He was in the garden. 

My brothers and sisters, we have this same option available to us. Because of our salvation, because of our new birth, regeneration, because of the life and power that raised Jesus from the dead working in us, we can trust Jesus. We can always do what pleases Him by His grace and power and work in and through our lives. We can commit ourselves, give ourselves over and all of our circumstances, all of our cares over to God because He cares for us. He does what is right. He does what is best. 

And He says, “If need be,” in chapter 1, “we'll suffer for a short while. And that suffering will perfect our faith, and we will receive the end of our faith, the salvation of our souls.” His will is perfect for my life, for His glory, and as a path to my glorification. 

Jesus' path to glory was through suffering. He was made perfect through sufferings. He had to suffer in order to accomplish our salvation. Our path to glory is paved with suffering. Romans 8:16: “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God; and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” 

Do you believe God? Do you believe His Word? Peter says right here in our text that it pleases God, that it is commendable before God, that it is the will of God that we suffer for righteousness' sake—not for the sake of suffering, but for the sake of being conformed to the likeness of Christ, learning to trust God, believe Him, and being fruitful for His glory. 

And that when we suffer unjustly, we follow the footsteps of Jesus, that we trace our life after the pattern of His life, an example of submission. And we do not revile, we do not threaten, we do not seek to defend ourselves, we do not seek to obtain justice, but rather that we keep on entrusting ourselves to Him. This is God's will. This is the path to glory. This is the reality of being identified with Jesus in this life, in this cursed world. 

A servant is not greater than his master. We will suffer. How will we endure? How will we respond, and what will our witness be? The key is to know the Word and the will of God, and it's clearly expounded here. And then to believe, to reckon what God says to be true, and then yield to Him, entrust ourselves to Him and His grace, and His power, and His purpose. 

And that He will not only work out His will through us to bring us to glory, but also in all of this, He will sustain us. He will empower us, and He will use us to bring glory to Himself. 

My brothers and sisters, put away the things of this world. Put away the thinking of this world. Renew your minds to the Word of God and entrust yourself to Him. Entrust yourself to your Father, as you abide in Jesus, as you walk in the Spirit. And in this, you'll bear fruit; you'll have a fruitful life. You won't lack anything, as Peter says in 2 Peter 1. You'll have much fruit for His glory. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we thank You. We thank You that You tell us the truth. So many false teachers want to tell us lies about ease and prosperity, and that Jesus came to deliver us from our problems. But we know that the truth is that Jesus suffered to the point of death on the cross in separation from the Father for the purpose of saving us from the wrath of God for our sins. 

And that because we are identified with Jesus, because we follow Him, because we are pilgrims and strangers living among the pagans, because we speak the truth into this world, we will suffer as Jesus suffered. But we know that You are using that; You are working that together for our good, and that You are bringing us to glory. Thank You for that. Help us to view the temporal in light of the eternal, to set our hope on Your coming, and to set ourselves to be witnesses to live lives worthy of our calling as long as we have opportunity on this earth in this time. In Jesus' name. Amen.