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The Secret Superpower of Silence · Pastor John Piper's answers

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Speaker 1: Well, the physical thing happens inside of us when we
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Speaker 1: get treated unfairly. We feel our chest tightened up, our
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Speaker 1: brains start to cycle through comebacks. Later, we're going to
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Speaker 1: use our memory to play back all the comebacks that
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Speaker 1: we didn't think of in the moment. We want instant
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Speaker 1: justice to land the right verbal jab. But today we're
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Speaker 1: looking at a guy who had rocks thrown at him
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Speaker 1: and who just walked away. Today on asbestor John, the
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Speaker 1: secret superpower of silence a we could go past John.
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Speaker 1: We read Second Samuel sixteen, verses five to fourteen, by
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Speaker 1: the time when King David was traveling and gets cursed
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Speaker 1: by Shimai. Cursed continually, we are told in attacks, and
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Speaker 1: not just with words, but with thrown rocks at David
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Speaker 1: and his entourage. In response to the end was cursing.
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Speaker 1: David refuses to take vengeance. Instead, they travel on and
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Speaker 1: David says, quote, leave him alone and let him curse,
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Speaker 1: for the Lord has told him to wow Verse eleven,
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Speaker 1: scating little twists and story, So David leaves vengeance for God.
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Speaker 1: An anonymous listener wants you to address another text that
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Speaker 1: we're reading today with a similar theme. Pastor John hello.
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Speaker 1: In Mark fifteen, verses one to five, and again in
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Speaker 1: Mark chapter fifteen, verses fifteen thirty nine. We see Jesus
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Speaker 1: respond to false accusations and suffering as he stands before Pilate,
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Speaker 1: and then as he endorsed the cross. Why did he
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Speaker 1: remain silent in the face of accusations? How does his
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Speaker 1: silence reflect humility and obedience to God's will even when
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Speaker 1: he seemed to have every right to defend himself in
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Speaker 1: the moment. Was this all only for his act of
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Speaker 1: self emptying and obedience to the Father, or does his
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Speaker 1: example teach us also how to respond to injustice and
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Speaker 1: personal suffering ourselves?
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Speaker 2: In many ways, the Jewish king David was a foreshadowing
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Speaker 2: of Jesus, who is called the son of David. In
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Speaker 2: one of the ways that David foreshadowed Jesus was by
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Speaker 2: enduring many hardships as the king of Israel, including being
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Speaker 2: cursed by his own people. In these she pointed out
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Speaker 2: tony by Shimei in Second Samuel sixteen, And just like
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Speaker 2: Jesus in his suffering, David did not retaliate against Shimei.
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Speaker 2: So there's the correlation between David and the son of David.
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Speaker 2: So the patients and silence of David in his suffering
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Speaker 2: point toward the patients in silence of Christ in his suffering,
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Speaker 2: and isaiah prophesies makes a connection like this in chapter
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Speaker 2: fifty three, verse seven. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted.
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Speaker 2: Yet he opened not his mouth, like a lamb that
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Speaker 2: is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep before
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Speaker 2: its shearers, is silent. So he opened not his mouth.
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Speaker 2: So when Jesus is silent before the accusations of the Sanhedrin,
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Speaker 2: and before Pilate and before Herod, he was fulfilled, filling
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Speaker 2: the prophecy of Isaiah fifty three, like a sheep that
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Speaker 2: before its shearers is silent, And he was fulfilling the
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Speaker 2: foreshadowing of David's accepting of cursing. And the question that
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Speaker 2: our friend is asking is whether he was simply fulfilling
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Speaker 2: his role as a self emptying lamb of God, or
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Speaker 2: whether his example is intended to teach us how we
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Speaker 2: should live. The clearest answer to that question is given
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Speaker 2: by the apostle Peter in his first letter, because he
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Speaker 2: focuses directly on the suffering of Christ and he makes
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Speaker 2: it explicitly an example for us to follow. So here's
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Speaker 2: what he says. I think these words are hugely important
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Speaker 2: for us today in a very contentious revival kind of
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Speaker 2: world in which we live. He said, this is a
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Speaker 2: gracious thing when mindful of God one endures sorrows while
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Speaker 2: suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if when you
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Speaker 2: sin and are beaten for it, you endure, But if
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Speaker 2: you do good and suffer for it, you endure. This
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Speaker 2: is a gracious thing in the sight of God. Now
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Speaker 2: here's where he makes the connection with Christ verse twenty one.
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Speaker 2: For to this you have been called because Christ also
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Speaker 2: suffered for you, leaving you an example. So there's the
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Speaker 2: explicit connection, leaving you an example so that you might
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Speaker 2: follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was
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Speaker 2: deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he
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Speaker 2: did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did
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Speaker 2: not threaten, but continued in trusting himself to Him who
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Speaker 2: judges justly. So it's clear that Peter thinks that the
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Speaker 2: way Jesus endured his suffering is an example for us
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Speaker 2: to follow. This is fundamental to the way we Christians
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Speaker 2: should respond to the opposition that comes against us in
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Speaker 2: our obedience to Jesus. So four observations from Peter's words. First,
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Speaker 2: this suffering of Jesus was unjust, and that's the kind
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Speaker 2: of suffering. Peter's telling us to endure the slaves in
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Speaker 2: those churches, and that's who's addressing immediately the slaves were
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Speaker 2: enduring this, but not only the slaves. A lot of
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Speaker 2: people think, well, that's just didn' applot everybody. Well, it does.
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Speaker 2: These instructions were for all Christians because they turn up
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Speaker 2: in the very same words in the third chapter of
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Speaker 2: One Peter like this three nine. He's talking to everybody, Now,
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Speaker 2: do not repay evil for evil, or revise for reviling.
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Speaker 2: But on the contrary, bless for to this you were called.
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Speaker 2: Those are the very words he used earlier. That you
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Speaker 2: may obtain a blessing even if you should suffer for
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Speaker 2: righteousness sake you are blessed. Have no fear of them
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Speaker 2: or be troubled, but in your heart's honor Christ, the
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Speaker 2: Lord as holy, so that when you are slendered, those
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Speaker 2: who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put
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Speaker 2: to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good,
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Speaker 2: if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.
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Speaker 2: So the suffering that Christians are to endure is unjust.
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Speaker 2: First observition. Second, our response is not to return reviling
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Speaker 2: for reviling, because when Jesus was reviled, he did not
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Speaker 2: revile in return. On the contrary, we are to bless
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Speaker 2: were Jesus taught. This is the way Paul defined his ministry.
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Speaker 2: Not just Peter. Paul said, when reviled we bless. When
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Speaker 2: persecuted we endure, When slandered we entreat Verse Corinthians four twelve. Third,
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Speaker 2: the way we do this without giving up on the
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Speaker 2: cause of justice is by handing over our cause to God,
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Speaker 2: who judges justly. Justice will be done sooner or later.
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Speaker 2: God will settle all accounts at the cross or in Hell.
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Speaker 2: Nothing will be left undealt with That is not our
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Speaker 2: job when we are wronged. So what is the purpose then,
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Speaker 2: of enduring unjust suffering?
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Speaker 1: Now?
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Speaker 2: And that's the fourth observation from Peter. Peter says that
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Speaker 2: when we look to God, he uses the phrase conscious
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Speaker 2: of God. When we look to God and suffer this
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Speaker 2: way with Christ, it's a gracious thing with God. What
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Speaker 2: does that mean? A gracious thing? A gracious thing means
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Speaker 2: a beautiful thing a praiseworthy thing. Why is it praiseworthy
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Speaker 2: not because it calls attention to our worth, but because
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Speaker 2: it calls attention to the worth of God. He supplies
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Speaker 2: what we need now in order to suffer as we ought,
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Speaker 2: and He supplies the justice in due time when we
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Speaker 2: endure suffering. With Jesus, we do it the way Jesus did.
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Speaker 2: We hand over, as the literal translation, we hand over
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Speaker 2: our cause or ourselves, our lives to God, and we
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Speaker 2: trust him He's enough. It glorifies God when we trust
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Speaker 2: him to be enough other than retaliating. So here's the
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Speaker 2: way Jesus put the pieces together for us in Matthew five.
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Speaker 2: In verses thirteen and fourteen of Matthew five, Jesus says
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Speaker 2: that we are the salt of the earth and the
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Speaker 2: light of the world. In the context that saltiness and
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Speaker 2: brightness is our miraculous ability to rejoice in doing good
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Speaker 2: when we are reviled Verses eleven and twelve. Then he
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Speaker 2: says that we are to let that light. You are
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Speaker 2: the light of the world. Let your light so shine
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Speaker 2: that people can see your good deeds that are flowing
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Speaker 2: from that kind of heart and mindset. And faith, and
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Speaker 2: glorify your father who's in heaven. That's the point of
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Speaker 2: being the light of the world. That's the point of
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Speaker 2: not retaliating. That's the point of good deeds that your
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Speaker 2: father in heaven may be glorified. And then he spells
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Speaker 2: out some of those good deeds in chapter five, and
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Speaker 2: they come to a crescendo at the end of chapter five.
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Speaker 2: With love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you,
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Speaker 2: so that you may be sons of your father, chips
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Speaker 2: off the old block. You look like your father. You'll
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Speaker 2: be glorifying to your father, for he makes his son
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Speaker 2: to rise on the evil and the good, and sends
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Speaker 2: rein on the just and the unjust. So, yes, both
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Speaker 2: the teachings and the sufferings of Jesus are meant to
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Speaker 2: teach us how to respond when we are treated badly unjustly.
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Speaker 2: We are to glorify God by finding in him the
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Speaker 2: reward that satisfies our heart deeply enough that we don't
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Speaker 2: need to return evil for evil. This is a great
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Speaker 2: light in a dark and retaliating world, and God wants
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Speaker 2: it to shine with this kind of love.
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Speaker 1: That verse eleven leave him alone for the Lord has
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Speaker 1: told him to curse wild statement of Samuel sixteen, you.
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Speaker 2: Know, because I know people know the end of the
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Speaker 2: story where David arranges for Shimi to be dealt with,
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Speaker 2: and I was thinking that through, and that is exactly
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Speaker 2: in parallel with the way Jesus does it. Jesus is
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Speaker 2: totally willing to be cursed now, but that is not
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Speaker 2: the end of the story, and Jesus is going to
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Speaker 2: see to it. And the way David does it, I
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Speaker 2: don't know if I got all this work out. By
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Speaker 2: the way David does it, just to say to Solomon,
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Speaker 2: you know what he did to me, and I forget
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Speaker 2: exact words, but just see to it that he's taken
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Speaker 2: care of. And the way Solomon handles it is by
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Speaker 2: making it conditional. He doesn't just kill him. He says,
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Speaker 2: you stay in your house, you move from your house,
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Speaker 2: you're dead, And he moves from his.
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Speaker 1: House and he's dead.
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Speaker 2: So the dynamic there, I don't think is contradictory. You know,
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Speaker 2: you can't throw that at us and say, see, David
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Speaker 2: really didn't suffer any justice. Well, he did for quite
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Speaker 2: a long time, and it was quite humiliating. And then
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Speaker 2: as the King ought to do when he's in his
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Speaker 2: full power, he deals with injustice. But he did. He
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Speaker 2: didn't do it merely for the past. In he gave
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Speaker 2: him the chance.
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Speaker 1: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: So anyway, there's more, there's more going on there, and
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Speaker 2: I thought I can't do it all.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, thank you for what you did. Get to
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Speaker 1: We are to glorify God by finding in him the
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Speaker 1: reward that satisfies our hearts deeply enough that we don't
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Speaker 1: need to return evil for evil. Quote. That takeaway is
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Speaker 1: deeper than just biting our own tongue. It's about you know,
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Speaker 1: where do you put your trust? You hand the whole
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Speaker 1: mess over, you let God handle the justice. And in
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Speaker 1: a world where everyone is constantly retaliating, that that kind
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Speaker 1: of restraint, it shines like a spotlight in the darkness
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Speaker 1: of this sinful world. We've been here before on the podcast.
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Speaker 1: We've talked about these things before. You can see the
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Speaker 1: Aspesto John book on pouting, sulking, and self pity. When
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Speaker 1: we are hurt or underappreciated or unappreciated, how do we respond?
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Speaker 1: She pays one pint thirty of the book, and that
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Speaker 1: whole section that begins there on the aspector John book
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Speaker 1: for more on pouting, sulking, and self pity, of how
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Speaker 1: to practically deal with those sins in the heart, and
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Speaker 1: speaking of killing these fleshly instincts inside of us. Next
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Speaker 1: time I ask pestor John, kill your ego, find your joy.
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Speaker 1: I'm Tony Ranky. We'll see you on Monday.