Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / January 22, 2017 | Route 66 - 1 Peter

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January 22, 2017 | Route 66 - 1 Peter · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: How are you?
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you're at the Mulvaine Building or the College Avenue Building, watching online.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's great to have you.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's good to see you.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's January of 2017, and here at Topeka Bible, we're going through the Bible, sort of a road trip through the Bible.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: We call it Route 66 because there are 66 books in the Bible, and we have about seven left to go.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: And before I get into the book of 1 Peter, let me remind you that this is uh the time of year where we have an annual sort of celebration, if I don't know if that's the right word for it, of our Roe v.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Wade 1973.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, I know I like the statistic.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: I just discovered that at present uh the abortion rate in America is uh lower than it has been since 1973, that it has gone down that much.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: And um there are a couple reasons for that, of course.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: There are a number of states which have joined Kansas in uh passing laws that make it less easy for uh to give abortions to to and and all, but it's primarily, I think, a cultural thing.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: You don't see the TV shows and the movies praising abortion the way they used to 30, 40 years ago, uh, because I think everybody realizes this is uh an unborn life, this is something that should be cared for.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, but tomorrow there'll be a prayer from 11:30 to 12:30 on the north side of the Capitol building, down low visitors center, and then after that, as there always is at 1245 on the Capitol steps, the rally for life.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh if you want to know more about that, there's I think we have some brochures out in the lobby.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now, uh, to get into First Peter, very interesting book, 1 Peter, written by the great apostle, the big fisherman.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: I think the title should be Things Aren't Okay, Trust and Obey.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Is that the coolest title you've ever heard of?
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, this, I mean, wow.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: I think when I go to heaven, God's gonna say that.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: I should have put that in there.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: Just kidding.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: But it does rhyme.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, uh, let me let me start by saying uh something that I know you already know, and that is that Christians are are suffering, are under attack, for Speeder's about suffering, persecuted Christians.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Christians are under attack all over the world in India, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt, uh, Iraq, Nigeria, and so forth.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Just for being Christians.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Just for being Christians.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: And this last year, by the way, there was a there's there's uh actually it's award-winning uh uh uh uh uh alert to the plight of Christians in Iraq attacked by ISIS.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's sort of an in campaign, and uh, and and it uh in northern Iraq, the way it goes is that radical Muslims, ISIS has painted the Arabic letter in on the door, in standing for Nazarene, uh on the door of Christian businesses and Christian homes as a way of announcing that uh you only have a limited time, you either have to convert to Islam or flee the country with just what's on your back or be killed.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, I uh we have a video that I'd like to show you right now.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And in and you know, that's the the voice of a martyrs video.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see that video right now.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: The apostle Paul wrote that he was willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ, the power of his resurrection, joining the fellowship of his suffering, being conformed to him, even if it meant death.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: How do we join Paul in the fellowship of Jesus' suffering?
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: How do we join in being conformed to Christ, even if it means death?
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: Many of our brothers and sisters around the world already are a part of the fellowship of Jesus' suffering.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: They are being conformed to Christ even when it means death.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: In Mosul, Isis painted the Arabic inn on the homes of Christians, identifying them as followers of Jesus of Nazareth.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: Rather than deny Jesus or compromise their faith, many sacrificed everything except the clothes on their back.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: Some even gave their lives.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: They define what being an M Christian is.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: Are you in?
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: Will you publicly declare I will not let them suffer in silence?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: I will not let them serve alone.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh is that you um know what's going on.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Open Doors is uh is a ministry that uh serves persecuted Christians worldwide.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Every January they put out a list of the top 50 countries in the world that persecute Christians.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: The list they put out 10 days ago put North Korea number one, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan number four, Sudan, Syria, Iraq, and Iran.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: That was the top eight.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: And at the same time, they they keep uh statistics uh point out 322 Christians on the average are killed for their faith every single month around the world.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: 214 churches and Christian properties destroyed, 722 forms of violence committed against Christians, such as uh rape or beatings or forced marriages and so forth.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: And we need to know that.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And and and and and one thing that perhaps you you've heard as a statistic has come out about immigration to America is that some of this seeps into America itself, this bias against Christians.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the documentation that shows that U.S.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: immigration has been uh biased for Syrian Muslims against persecuted Syrian Christians.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, one-tenth or 10% of Syrians are Christian.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: 10% of Syrian refugees are Christian.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: So you would expect that 10% of those that immigration would allow into America would be Christians.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's not true.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Christians are being told no, Muslims yes.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: If the U.S.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: were to admit Christian refugees in a proportion to their population in Syria, about 1,260 Christians would by now have been resettled in America, when in fact only 68 have been.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: So you find that there is this sort of underlying and sometimes very overt prejudice against bias against Christians.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: So 1 Peter begins to speak to that by in the very first verse by saying, Don't be surprised that things aren't okay in this world you live in.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: For after the after after all, the world is not your home.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: You're a pilgrim.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I I can't help when I read that in uh in my translation, that we are pilgrims.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't help you know, seeing uh one of my favorite movie stars, you know.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Where are you headed, pilgrim?
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: He would say.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, you and I know where we're headed.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: We're headed toward our real home, that we are aliens, exiles, and strangers in this one.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: And that's how Peter begins.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: He says, this letter's from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm writing to God's chosen people who are living as foreigners.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Your translation may say exiles, it may say aliens, in the provinces of, and he lists five provinces in what is now what is now Turkey.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: And we know that literally Christians fled, 50,000 kicked out of Rome about this time by Nero, and Christians fleeing Jerusalem because of persecution, many of them going to Turkey, which, by the way, for the first 1,800 years of uh after Christ, was the most Christian nation in the entire world.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is where Paul had spread the gospel.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: And and now, by the way, even lately, this last year, everything has changed for Turkey, which was a friend of America and even of Israel, as the most, shall we say, liberal Muslim country has now radicalized and and is now a very dangerous place to go and to be.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: So the question is, what does he mean by foreigners?
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Does he mean literal or does he mean that we are foreigners from heaven?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: And we find as we read this book, well, what he means really is that you and I are just passing through this world that our real home is elsewhere.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: The Christians to whom Peter writes were sojourners and pilgrims traveling through a wicked and hostile world.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: As are we.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, not Christian, but but secular universities and colleges across our country have sort of pulled off the gloves.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: There may have been some slight bias against against Christians, you know, in the past.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'll never forget when a girl came up to me after church 15 years ago and she says, uh, I'm halfway through my first year at Duke University, and they forced us a few weeks ago in our first course to kiss someone of the same sex right in class.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: And she says, uh, so I just it's just so weird, it's just so alien to me.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: So but but but that that was minor compared with what's happening now, according to these studies, that that if you put, if you're applying to, say, an Ivy League school and you happen to mention that you're a Christian or you're involved in Christian things, that that that will actually work against your acceptance.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: And and and and and if you write a paper that takes a Christian position, you may get a failing grade.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now that isn't all new.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now, why when my wife was uh getting her degree even over here at Washburn in the social work department, and she had to have a project for a senior year, and I've told you this before, and she started the Crisis Pregnancy Center and was getting an A and everything until they discovered this was a Christian institution.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then immediately the A fell to an F, and she had to start over.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: So, but that's what happens, and sometimes you can feel like a Christian within your own country.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: And some of you who've been on sports teams perhaps have realized a Christian player can be a foreigner on his or her own team.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: A Christian worker can feel like a foreigner and be an alien in his or her own workplace.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: And to quote John Piper, who preached a message, his first line was some women are foreigners within their own marriage.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: And what he was speaking about from a passage in 1 Peter was that you'll have wives sometimes married to unbelieving husbands.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: The wife really wants to serve the Lord and so forth, but the husband doesn't just tolerate it, he's actually violently opposed to it.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the book of Peter is written for people who sense that they are foreigners right here on earth.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: And he begins by saying, listen, you shouldn't be stunned because this world's not your home.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says in the next ten verses a word of comfort, but you need to know that the end of this, you know, difficulty or pain is coming.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: It won't end, however, until Jesus actually returns.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: And he says that in the next verse when he says, Listen, Jesus has caused us to be born again to a living hope by his resurrection.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: And in context, what he means is that there's a hope to the end of what you may be going through right now.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because he says in verse 6, for a little while you may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials, but they've come for a purpose, so that your faith, which is of greater worth than gold, can be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor at the appearing of Jesus Christ.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: Elsewhere in the New Testament, we know that this is true, that there'll come a day when Jesus will wipe away every tear from our eyes.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: The tears of pain and suffering, including the tears of suffering for the cause of Christ.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Peter doesn't just stop there with this don't be surprised and let me comfort you by saying it'll all end one day.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: He actually addresses it with by answering three questions, which I've put on the back of your study sheet.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: How do I prepare for this kind of suffering ahead of time?
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  SPEAKER_00: Second, how do I deal with the authority figures who make me, who persecute me?
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: And third, how do I deal with the suffering itself?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Let's walk through these and I want to chat about them.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think they're very practical.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: How do I prepare for the suffering itself?
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: Chapter 113 through 210.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: And his answer is very simple and very practical.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: He says, get close to God and get close to God's people.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to prepare for a period of difficulty, then you need to prepare by getting closer to God than you've ever been, and closer to other people than you've ever been.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I read this and I and I was reminded of the really awful joke, which I just have to tell you because it may help you remember these two points, about the pilot who had a private plane, but he was losing his eyesight.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: His eyes were getting worse and worse.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: And he was at a party uh one time and he could hardly make find the counter, you know, to get his drink.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so they said, What in the world?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: You don't you still fly your plane?
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Yes, I do.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: How in the world can you do that?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Well, with the help of the good Lord and my friends.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, What do you mean by that?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he says, you know, my wife drives me at the airport, and you know, I go, I know where I know where my plane is, and I get behind the cockpit and turn it on, and so forth.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now I never fly anymore without a friend, without my wife or someone else.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: And usually I have a good friend with me, and he said, So, you know, I taxi out to the runway, and my short sight, I can I can see, okay, I can see the runway, I just can't see when it ends, and so forth.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, I start the plane and I start taxiing real fast down the runway.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: Says, and I don't know when to pull back the controls, I just wait until my friend yells out, good Lord, and then he says, I pull back on the controls and says, then I'm right up in the air and I'm fine.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: He said, So it just with the help of the good Lord and my friends, I'm I'm really okay.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought of that because those are the two points, aren't they, here?
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: That if you want to prepare for suffering, you need to get close to the good Lord and you need to get close to friends, which is oftentimes the opposite of what happens.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: You find someone who's who's got marital trouble, who's headed into a difficult, you know, rough waters in their life, who's having business trouble or something, and you find as often as not they stop having their quiet time, they stop praying, they feel a little angry at God that he's put them in this situation, and they stop going to church, they stop hanging with friends, they quit their Bible study, right?
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: And and and what Peter says is you need to do just the opposite.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: You need to, first of all, get close to God.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: He says that in a lot of ways in these uh nine, eight verses, but in the very first one he says, so you need to prepare your minds for action, be self-controlled, set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: Years ago, Catherine Coob was one of those who was uh one of those hostages, taken hostage in that famous Iran uh hostage crisis back in 1979, and she with others spent 444 days, a year and a half, in really a bad situation in Iran, wondering if they would ever be saved.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that?
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, you know, those of the who were Christians, they would sing songs to each other and and and they would talk to each other about the Lord, they would pray, and and they were not allowed to have Bibles, of course.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: So they would recite any verses they knew.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: And and Catherine Coop, when she came back, when they were released, came back to the state, she wrote her nephew in Florida, be sure and learn your memory verses, because you never know when it's going to come in handy.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, how do you prepare for suffering?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: You you get close to God ahead of time.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: The other thing you do is you get close to God's people.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Again, it's not a thing that you tend to do when you're beginning, when you can see that you're headed into rough seas, you tend to move away from people.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: But this this book says, listen, you need to love each other fervently from the heart.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: You need to love each other deeply.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Love covers a multitude of sins.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: You need to get close to God's people.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um here again, as I read this, I was reminded of another bad joke.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um the guy who got in a bad car wreck, he was with his best friend, and then they got in a bad car wreck, and and he woke him to the hospital with some broken ribs, and when he came to his his best friend who had escaped it with just a few scratches, you know, was sitting right next to his bed.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: And when he and he finally realized, he said, Wow, Jerry, you're here.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: He said, You know, when I think about it, you've always been right here with me.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he said, remember when we were skiing together and and and uh you know I broke my collarbone?
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm you're right there with me.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, remember when we were golfing and and a golf ball came and hit me in the head and I was concussed?
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You were right there with me.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: And remember the time when we were riding horse, I fell off and broke my leg and right there with me, and now we've had a car wreck, and you're right there with me.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: Jerry says, You're bad luck.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't really illustrate the point very well, but the point is that you want a friend who's always right there with you.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe a better illustration is that if you've ever visited the redwoods in California, those great sequoias, and taking the tours I've done, you know, you're stunned to see that the roots of those trees are so shallow.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: And someone said, But big trees like this need roots that go down deep.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: And the guide said, No, no, this is true of all huge trees around the world.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: They always are in groves together.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: Their roots are always shallow, but intertwined so that when the strong winds blow, they hold each other up.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: He says, You'll find this in Russia and Germany and here in California.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what you and I need.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: We need to ask ourselves, okay, if if tough times are coming, have I intertwined my roots with a number of other people so that when the tough times come, that we can hold each other up.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyway, uh up through chapter two, verse 10, in answer to the question, how do I prepare for suffering ahead of time, you need to get close to God.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: You need to get close to God's people.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes a guy will come in and his marriage is about to fall apart.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: He's not sure it will, but I mean it's bad.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's his fault.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it isn't.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, what do I do, Jim?
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: What what do I do?
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: And and my answer always starts with with this.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's always you need to get closer to God than you've ever been before.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: You have no control over what she does or over what he does, if I'm talking to what you need to do, sir, is you need to become the Christian you've always dreamed of becoming, the Christian that you know God wants you to become.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: You need to become that person as you head into this dark part of your life, and then just trust him.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: So that's how you prepare for suffering.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the major part of the book answers that second question.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_00: How do you deal with the people, in this case with the authority figures, who make you suffer?
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Chapter 211 through 312, a very unique passage in the entire Bible.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it begins with very simple instruction that you need to maintain private integrity and you need to maintain public integrity.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: Privately, he says, Beloved, I urge you, as here it is again, sojourners and exiles, to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against the soul.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: So the problem is, as you know, that when you get in tough times, that you know, when you're getting fired from a job or you're losing a marriage or you're feeling betrayed or something else, you tend to cut yourself slack.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: Am I right?
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: And you tend to allow yourself to say things and to do things that you wouldn't normally do, for after all, you're a victim, and victims can be permitted to stretch the rules a little bit, maybe to lie a little bit, or to cheat a little bit, or to steal a little bit.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: And this passage says, no, no, no, no.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's vitally important that as the suffering uh hits, you maintain your private integrity.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: And not only that, that you maintain public integrity.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: He says, live so.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Such good lives among the pagans, 2.12, that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may realize you're not doing wrong.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: They may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, you need to suffer unjust persecution and slander in a way that wins unbelievers to faith.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: Maintain public as well as private integrity.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: And now as he starts to flesh this out, I have to warn you that we come to sort of a seminary level or university level, advanced ethics class.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: You find this nowhere else in the Bible.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_00: Normally I wouldn't torture you with something, you know, uh of this level, but you can understand this and you will benefit from it.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm calling 1 Peter a course in advanced ethics, how to respond to the orders of ungodly authorities.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that's what he now begins to talk about.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now he he doesn't address the what I think of as an easy question.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: When you're given a command that directly goes against what God has commanded you to do.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: Well, obviously, you have to obey God rather than men.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: We faced that that issue on I'm on the Jews for Jesus board last summer because in June, Vladimir Putin and and and uh Russian leaders passed the law, no more evangelism in Russia.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: You can say what you want to behind your closed door, but but no more evangelism.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we had our campaign that was kicking off in just one week, a two-week campaign to share Christ there in the streets of Moscow, St.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: Pete's, and so forth.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: But so we had to do, we we we knew that in Acts chapter 4 and 5, the apostles, remember, had faced the exact same issue when they were told not to speak of Jesus, and they said, Well, we do it anyway because we must obey God rather than man.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: So we went ahead with it, and and we got away with it this past year.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: Don't know if we'll get away with it this coming year, but when there's a direct command uh against what God has commanded that we do or don't do, you must obey God rather than man.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's why Martin Luther stood up in 1521 at the Council of Verms and said, I cannot and I will not recant anything for it to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: In that famous line from the Martin Luther movie.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not what 1 Peter deals with, because that's pretty direct.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: No, this is advanced ethics, and it deals then with the question: well, how do you then respond when the authority punishes you for doing what is right, for obeying God?
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'll never forget when a young wife in Morocco, who had converted from Islam to Christianity, asked me that.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: She says, now that I'm married, she was forced to be married to a Muslim man, and every time he saw her, heard her praying to Jesus, he would beat her.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: She says, How do I respond to that?
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's first Peter deals with that question, and then with the even harder question of what about when the command doesn't directly go against what God has commanded you to do, but just oppresses you or puts up difficulties or humiliates you.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: What do you do in such cases?
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I call it advanced ethics.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the key word for you and I to learn is the word deference.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: Say that word after me.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: Deference, yes.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is a word, the word submit is used in this text, but submit is a word with negative connotations.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's got a halo that's a mess now.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: But deference is a great word having to do with polite behavior that yields, that acquiesces, that finds a way to cooperate and get along.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you can see how important this idea is as you walk through the one, two, three, four examples that 1 Peter gives.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is about government.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, submit or be deferential for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it's to king, one in authority, governors, and so forth, for such is the will of God that by doing right you can silence the ignorance of foolish men.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, you don't rebel.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: Temptation is to rebel against the government.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: After all, they're permitting abortions.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: I must stand up and rebel against them.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's not a, they're not commanding you to do an abortion.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's an indirect command.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't rebel, but you you do show deference.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: You do show de How about the workplace?
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: When you have difficult bosses or difficult leaders, servants be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the unjust, for it's a gracious thing when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't conform, you don't go along with what they're doing that's illegal or wrong, but you are, you remain deferential.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the example he he then gives is Jesus at the end of chapter two, beginning of chapter three, who committed no sin, in other words, he was righteous, deceit wasn't found in his mouth.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: Did he retaliate?
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: No, when he was reviled, he did not revile in return.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: When he suffered, he didn't threaten.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: He could have, he could have, he could have even jumped down from the cross for a minute and said, I want you to show you something, and brought 10,000 angels down and scared them all to death, and then thumbed his nose and jumped back up on the cross and died.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: But he didn't, did he?
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: No, he Jesus remained deferential and he trusted God.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then the final example is wives married to unbelieving husbands who give them a hard time for being Christians, going to church, maybe refuse to let them go to church, and so forth.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: Wives, he says in the same way, be deferential, submissive to your husbands, so that if any of them don't believe the word, they can be won over without words by your behavior.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, you don't cower, his illustration is Sarah and Abraham, but you remain deferential.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: Let me give you a practical example of how this might work.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: Last summer I went with the Topeka Bible Church teenagers, uh, Derek Rowe, there was uh several dozens of us that went to New York City to witness and had a great time.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: And uh pictures outside Jews for Jesus office there.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so Derek would get us all outside, and then we would pray, and then we would split, he'd split us up into groups so that then we could, you know, get go to different parks and and find, we had creative ways of witnessing.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: We'd put up a big board and with a sign, What can we pray for you for?
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: And people loved to do that.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: And they'd come and write their prayer requests, put it on, we'd pray for them, and maybe get a chance to chat with them.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_00: Or we had we'd make lemonade or iced tea and give it away free, and and and and and they'd say, Why are you doing this?
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: And we could we could share Christ with them.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: And one day afternoon, one morning, actually Anne afternoon, we went to Washington Square Park, which is a beautiful park in South Manhattan.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's a very large park, and we'd been there before and and had a great time.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so we put up, I was with uh five, six, and we put up uh we put up the uh table where we gave away cups of ice cold lemonade.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: People love that, and had juice for Jesus, a little message on it, and so forth, and people would talk to us, and it was really fun.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then a couple police came up, a man and a woman, and in their uniforms said, You can't do that.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: She said, What do you mean?
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we did it a couple days ago.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you you can't do that here.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's tempting to say, I happen to know the law, and it is legal for us, it's public property.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: We can do this here.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: There are other people doing stuff around here, and so it's legal, but you didn't do that.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: So we have we can do it, but we just have to move right.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: So we move out to close to the edge of the park, you know.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it wasn't really visible, and it's a hassle to take down the tables and you know, lug the you know, heavy, you know, drink and so forth, set it all up, and we start doing it again, we're giving away free eye.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then all of a sudden, you know, here they came again, stood there.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: You can't do it here.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: Here, here's getting a little tired, you know.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: They say you want to go, it is legal, you can't say that, and so forth.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: But but you know, we didn't do this.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: I said, How about if we do it?
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: Can we do it right outside the park then?
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so they said, Well, we think so.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: So we go right outside the park on the sidewalk.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the nice thing is that is that just to the north of us is New York University, so there are a lot of kids, and it's about lunchtime now, so we're gonna see kids, and there some people coming into one of these entrances is one of about eight entrances to the park.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: And and and we did have a great time, but this illustrates what 1 Peter is about, is advanced ethics.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: So we were obeying God by witnessing.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: They were not saying we couldn't witness at all, but we were honoring the authorities by moving, and we were being deferential at all times in our attitude.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense to you?
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's what this book is, is advanced ethics, where you find ways of being respectful and deferential while at the same time maintaining your obedience to God.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: If I was to summarize, I would remind you we are strangers in a foreign land, even America, and we prepare for suffering by getting close to God and close to people.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: And we deal with the people who make us suffer, the authority figures, by primarily by being deferential, at all times maintaining both private and public integrity.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so now that he's he's he's dealt with the unique thing, he now moves to how do you deal with the suffering itself as it's on you?
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: And his answer is you need to trust God and do what's right.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: In your attitude, trust God.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: In your action, do what's right.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: And we come to what I believe is the key verse of the book.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd like you to say it with me, 1 Peter 4.19, because it is the key verse.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: Say it with me.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_00: Notice that, trust and do good.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: And God has this amazing promise right here in this context to innocent sufferers that He will, he says, if you suffer for doing what's right, He will reward you for it.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's not clear whether the I will reward you or I will bless you means right now or later.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: I know it includes later, but I think there's a blessing to come now.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: I I have some sympathy for the prayer pup's cartoon where she says to her prayer pup buddy, uh, I had a bad day, my teacher yelled at me today, and I didn't do anything wrong.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Then you're blessed.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible says if you suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: Really?
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: Am I blessed with ice cream?
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'll get some bowls.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: And and that's my kind of blessing, perhaps.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's what I'd like.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but but the point of uh 1 Peter in suffering is if you'll allow yourself to be humbled under the mighty hand of God at the proper time, I promise he will exalt you.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter 5, 6.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: And when I think of that trust, I think there's some meat in that.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: I think that when Peter said entrust, he's using the word that Jesus used from the cross when he said, Father, into thy hands I commit, I entrust my spirit.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: And what he means is when you're right there and you feel like you're on a cross, to that extent you trust yourself to God.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: You're like the blind little girl in the story who's sitting in her daddy's lap on the porch, and a friend of the family tiptoes up, comes up the steps, winks at the father, and suddenly grabs the little girl, grabs her and runs down the stairs and out to the sidewalk and stops stunned.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Why, I don't get it.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_00: Why aren't you crying out?
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't know who it was that grabbed you.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: And she says, You're right.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know who grabbed me, but I I know my father, and I knew that if my father allowed you to grab me, then it must be okay.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: And you see, that's what you do when you're in suffering because you know that nothing can happen to you that hasn't first gone through the permission of a God who promises he works out everything for good to those who love God.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so you trust him implicitly.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: But you don't give up obeying, and that's the part that's getting harder and harder.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'll give you just two illustrations very quickly to illustrate that this is going to become really hard.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_00: This happened just five years ago, World Relief, whose president spoke here in this room ten years ago.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I'm a new president now, but World Relief decided as a Christian charity, it needed to reiterate the fact that it wasn't just a relief organization, but it was a Christian organization.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it said it was going to have all of its employees around the world uh sign a statement of faith just to reiterate we're a Christian organization.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: And to their surprise, uh two-thirds or three-quarters of its staff in one city in America actually resigned.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: We don't like the fact, that fact.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that got picked up by the Chicago Tribune, which which which called it unchristian.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that interesting when non-Christians tell us what Christian behavior is?
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: It was an unchristian thing for them to say that that only Christians need apply.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: And the Americans United for Separation of Church and State entitled this World Relief Grief.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, you you you may get hurt for doing what's right, for doing what God's called you to do, but you must obey, you must continue to do it.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: More recently, I think of Intervarcy, University started 140 years ago this year on Cambridge campus, when Christian students started to pray together, read the Bible together, and witness in 1877.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: And four years ago, a number of their staff, they're on over 640 campuses in America.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great college organ Christian organization like Campus Crusade.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: And intervarsity staffers said, you know, there are 13,000 of us, but we're dealing with a whole issue of LGBT and you know, gender and sex and everything else.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: Would you mind revisiting our statement?
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: We understand that it's a biblical statement, but would you revisit that?
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_00: And they finished last October, a four-year study, and put out this thorough, a 20-page thing that included premarital sex and included uh spousal abuse and included all kinds of things, gender and so forth.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: And it reiterated their previous stance.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, but of course, wow.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: When that hit, Time magazine, top evangelical college group, they focused only on one group here to dismiss employees who support gay marriage.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: And Atlantic Monthly, Innervarsity's move on gay marriage, which of course was not a move at all.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: And InnerVarsity actually told its staff, we'll just hold you to your conscience.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you think you're in a different place than we are, we would expect that you would come to us and you would resign.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: What they did is they are what's called mission true.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: They are following what they believe God tells them to do from his Bible.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: And that's going to become more difficult, isn't it?
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: And when you are suffering, you must realize you not only trust God, but you continue to obey him.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: For he said, therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if you're like me, this is my mother's uh favorite hymn.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: We sang it nearly every night at home when I was growing up.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: Trust and obey when we walk with the Lord in the light of his word, what a glory he sheds on our way while we do his good will.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: He abides with us still and with all who will trust and obey.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: Or perhaps we should say this morning, there's no other way when things aren't okay but to trust and obey.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, uh, for these dear people, for those who are considering Christianity, for those who are Christians, we know that these are key and very practical issues today.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: I ask that you would bless them, that we would all be enabled to trust you as we should, fling ourselves upon you with a helpless abandon and depend upon you in life, and at the same time obey you in Jesus' name.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.