Silence Foolish Men • 1 Peter 2:12-17

32:43 Teaching begins

Notes

We as Christians tell the truth about Jesus, that He died for our sins and rose again from the dead. He lives in me by His Holy Spirit. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no man comes to the Father except through Him.

People deny that. They make Christianity foolish. How do we prove Jesus is true?
You can argue with people but it’s rarely effective.

You wish there was a magic argument, but there’s no such thing. It’s not a matter of knowing the correct facts or statistics or anecdotes. Talk is cheap.

Peter commands us to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Not by clever arguments. Not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of God. No one can argue against the power of a good life.

I’m reading in 1 Peter 2 from verse 11, to get the context (to verse 17).

1. Peter exhorts his readers to live right before all men.

A. It’s partly for our own benefit. We don’t want to be dominated by fleshly lusts. They wage war against our soul. We don’t want to lose our soul, so we hold ourselves back from lusts and pursue our relationship with Jesus.

B. There’s a bigger issue at stake than just our own purity. It’s being a witness of the reality of Jesus to the world around us.
C. Christians are slandered as evildoers in this world.

1. When you read the Acts of the Apostles you see the Christians being accused of being lawbreakers, they are arrested, put in prison, beaten by the rulers. Peter was in prison a bunch of times. He knew what it was to be slandered.

2. Christians were slandered as atheists and unpatriotic. Religion was an arm of the state. Roman citizens were required to burn incense to the emperor as a god. This is supposed to contribute to the good of the state. Christians would refuse to do that because Caesar isn’t God. Christians were slandered for being atheists, for not believing in the gods that everyone else did. They were slandered for doing horrible things, drinking blood and eating flesh. What a bunch of sick people!

3. The very same things happened to Jesus. When the Jews delivered Him up to the Roman governor Pilate they said, “If this Man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him up to you.” They testify that Jesus is the King of the Jews, a political rebel against the state.

D. Peter says keep your behaviour excellent among the Gentiles.

1. Excellent is a word that means good, beautiful, commendable, honest, right, praiseworthy.

2. It means living is such a way that people can’t help but notice that your behaviour is beyond reproach.

3. It means doing good, being kind, gentle, patient, not bragging, not arrogant, not easily provoked, not keeping a record of wrongs, not rude. But bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, enduring all things. Love towards all men is beautiful and good.

E. Because the Gentiles are watching you.

1. They are observing your life, how you do things, how you treat people.

2. It makes a big impression on them because you are not like the usual person in the world. You stand out. You are like a city on a hill; you can’t be hidden. You are like a lamp in a dark place; you bring light into the situation when you come in, and when you leave it becomes dark again.

F. Our words may not move anyone. But our lives will. In the end, you will win every argument.

1. Peter says in the day of visitation they will glorify God because of your deeds. This is when Jesus comes back. He is going to be vindicated as real. All of us will be vindicated as telling the truth.

2. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, and that we were not evildoers, they were, and they were wrong. They will have to admit that they saw His light in us, and they rejected us and Him. They will glorify God, because they will have to acknowledge the truth.

3. We don’t have to vindicate ourselves now, or prove that we are right. That’s a waste of time because we don’t want to argue, we want to commend the truth to every person. Jesus is worthy to follow because He saved me.

4. We are to let our good and beautiful lives of love be visible to everyone so that our words have weight when we get an opportunity to speak. Some people say we should only let our lives do the talking, but we need to give glory to Jesus, otherwise people might think that we are naturally good, and that’s not the truth. Jesus is in me, and He’s the good one.

2. Christians are to be faithful members of the state.

A. Romans 13:1-7 Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.

B. Notice that Paul agrees with Peter that government is to punish evildoers and praise those who are right. The Christian is to support the government where he or she is at. So you pay your taxes, not avoid them. You render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, like Jesus said, and render to God the things that are God’s. You obey the laws, even obey the speed limit and not run red lights, even though everyone else does that. You know how to drive 90 in a 30 zone, but you don’t, because you obey the law.

C. The first objection to that is always, “What if the government is bad, tyrannical? What about Adolf Hitler?”

1. Neither Paul nor Peter is saying that government is perfect.

2. They are saying submit to them for the Lord’s sake, because the Lord says to do it. Jesus submitted to the government as they were trying Him falsely and condemning Him to death. Every king and governor and head of state is going to stand before the King of kings and be judged for what they did in their office. They are going to be judged for their lies, their crimes, their thefts, their mismanagement, their prostitution of the office they held as a public trust.

3. The state can go beyond its mandate from God of judging evildoers and rewarding those who do right. It can attempt to be like God and tell everyone what to do. It can be tyrannical, it can demand worship of the state. When the state is wrong according to the word of God then you oppose it, and you accept the consequences for disobedience. This is what Martin Luther King did in the civil rights movement in the U.S. Christians in China or Saudi Arabia or Iran worship the Lord at the risk of their lives. They are aware of the dangers and say with the apostles, “We must obey God rather than men.” You endure persecution with a clear conscience towards God.

3. Act as free men who are slaves of God.

A. Free men are not slaves of any man. They are not under compulsion, they can manage their own affairs, make their own decisions.

B. But we are to use our freedom to submit ourselves to Christ as His slaves. Our will is to be swallowed up in His will.

1. 1 Corinthians 7:22 For he who was called in the Lord while a slave, is the Lord’s freedman; likewise he who was called while free, is Christ’s slave.

2. Jesus really is the Lord of our lives. We are all about obeying Him.

C. Everyone else in this world is a slave of sin, whether a billionaire businessman or a head of state. They look free, like they can do anything they want, and they are the merest slaves of sin, slaves of their passions, slaves of materialism, slaves of idolatry.

D. Paul again agrees with Peter. He says in Galatians 5:13-14 For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.” Fleshly lusts wage war against the soul. Through love serve one another.

E. People would see that as bondage! I want to be free! So if I feel constricted by my marriage vows, then I break those vows by divorce. I don’t want to serve anyone but myself!

F. God commits Himself to His people by a covenant, a vow that He will keep forever. Faithfulness is not a bondage, it’s stability and peace. Serving others is a joy. It’s more blessed to give than to receive.

G. Many of Peter’s readers would have been slaves themselves. They are to be the Lord’s freedmen, loving even their master and benefitting him because they belong to Christ.

4. As a bondslave of Jesus, you do what He wants.

A. Honour all people. Not because they deserve it, but because Jesus loves the just and the unjust and you are to be like Him. That is a testimony to them of the reality of Jesus.

B. Love the brotherhood. These are the believers, the low, the unlovely, the weak, the nothings. But God has put infinite value on them because Jesus loved them and died for them, and so you put infinite value on them, too. God is really our Father, so we really are brothers and sisters. Everybody is this family loves everybody, or else. All men will know that you are My disciples if you love one another.

C. Fear God. You do not presume on your Father in heaven. You make your Father visible by how you do what is right, to please Him. You show utmost respect by your utmost obedience. That means you go further than other people in doing what is right because you know who God is. He did not spare His own Son when His Son died in our place. He condemned Jesus without mercy. We believe this. So we fear God and do what is right.

D. Honour the king. It’s too easy to despise the rulers and be against them. The reason is I despise authority anyway. But God says to respect him. Obey the laws. Do not curse the king. Be a responsible member of the state. That’s why we pray for the heads of state though we disagree with them. Bless them, uphold them, help them to govern rightly.

5. The point of living right is a testimony to the truth that silences the ignorance of foolish men.

A. There are people who are ignorant of God. Because they are ignorant, they are foolish. They bring the way of God into disrepute. They prevent people from hearing the truth. They malign the truth. Everybody knows Christians are hypocrites.

1. Some foolish men witnessed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. People from all over the known world heard Galileans proclaiming the excellencies of God in languages they could not have known. What does this mean, this outpouring of worship of God like this? There were some there who said, “They’re full of sweet wine.” Foolish men explain away miracles as trivial, the way of God as nothing.

2. Paul explains the gospel to kings, governors and heads of state. The Roman governor Festus interrupts and says, “You are out of your mind, Paul! Your great learning has driven you insane!”

B. What is at stake is God’s reputation in the earth. 

1. It’s beyond your reputation, what people think about you. If you care about what people think of you, you won’t say anything about Jesus because people won’t think well of you.

2. This is about God, this is about Jesus, in whom the fullness of God dwells in bodily form. He explains what God is like to the world. He is the only way to the Father. He is the only salvation. He is the only hope in this world.

3. God wants us to live right for Jesus’ sake.

C. Who is sufficient for these things? No one. What it really demands is that Jesus live in you. So does Jesus live in you? Did He die for your sins and rise again from the dead? Did you ask Him to come into your life? People who go to church sometimes haven’t asked Jesus to come into their lives. This is where we start.

D. Then prove the truth. God’s strategy: do right, and silence the ignorance of foolish men. Keep your behaviour excellent among the Gentiles. They are watching.

1. Look at the goodness of our lives. We are not drunkards, not sex-crazed, not party animals. We are not sports enthusiasts who beat up the other team’s supporters if we lose the game. We don’t beat our wives and we don’t ignore our children so they have nothing better to do than tune out on their phones. We don’t shoplift. We don’t do online scams and phish and steal millions like parasitic blood sucking ticks. We don’t destabilise the state.

2. We provide order to society because there is order to our lives. That order comes from Jesus above. We are constrained by the love of Jesus to do a full day’s work. We respect the government. We pay our taxes. We love and care for our children and wives. We help the poor. We feed people, pray for the sick. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are reviled we pray for our enemies. We go the extra mile, we turn the other cheek.

3. Jesus is in our lives. We can do only good in His name.

E. Let people process this contradiction: How can a lie produce what is good, honest, loving? Jesus said, make the fruit good, then the tree is good. If it’s bad fruit, then the tree is bad. A bad tree can’t produce good fruit. If it’s good fruit, then it has to be a good tree.

F. The world knows that talk is cheap. God wants people to see lives that He has truly changed through Jesus Christ. He wants them to see Jesus in you.

Let’s pray.