The Mysterious Witness of Submission and Suffering, Part 2

Today on Summit Life, Pastor J.D. Greer talks about how we respond to criticism. Yes, there is a time to answer, but what Peter is saying is ultimately for a cynical community that you're in. It is not your persuasive arguments that end up being the greatest witness.

It is how you are obedient. That is how you put the silence, the ignorance of foolish people. Welcome back to Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of Pastor J.D.

Greer. As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. Fortunately, in America today, Christians aren't facing torture or death for speaking the truth about Jesus, but there are parts of the world where that is still a daily reality. The Bible makes it clear that if you're really following Jesus, then the world's going to oppose you in one way or another. So what do we do when we're mocked or excluded because of our faith? What if we're shunned by our family or fired from our job because of the convictions that we hold?

Pastor J.D. answers that question with a message called the mysterious witness of submission and suffering. So grab your Bible and let's return to the book of 1 Peter. I realize that to this audience that I'm speaking to in particular, talking about submission is like rubbing a cat's fur the wrong way.

It definitely does not set well with you and there's a handful of reasons for that that you should realize. One is you are sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, the original rebels, and their genes are in you, their blood is in you, and so that's just what you are by nature. You're a rebel. Now our whole race is that way, but second of all, you are Americans and our nation was born in rebellion. We're a rebellious people.

If you don't believe that, just ask the British. Now the reason is that you are a post 1960s generation where rebellion was enshrined as a civic value and of course there were a lot of good things that came out of that rebellion. Civil rights, that's good. There was some not so good things that came out of that, you know, like a rebellion, drop an acid and rebellion against deodorant, that's not so good, okay? But that's just who you are and so that makes rebellion part of our cultural ethos. It's just part of the air we breathe to realize that yes, what Peter is about to talk to you about should be very offensive to you and if it's not, then I'm either not explaining it right or you're not listening. For many of you, your problem with submission to earthly authorities is a problem with authority in general. You don't like anybody telling you what to do, including God. I'm just going to tell you, God's never going to be known that way. God is known only down the path of absolute surrender and submission. Some of you act like you want to know God. You come to church, you sit down, you take notes, but you're not willing to do what God says. God is the almighty God. He's not a life coach, he's not a spiritual advisor, which means you don't come to him and negotiate about what you want to do or what you don't want to do. God is known only through submission and surrender and if you don't come that way, you're not going to know him at all. So Peter says, be subject to every human institution.

Submit to them. He gives you two reasons why you should do this. Verse 14, because governors and authorities are sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. If you're taking notes, write this down. Number one, these are institutions ordained by God.

Number two, it's kind of long. Our humble submission to authority and our civic goodness are God's ordained way of putting to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Our humble submission to authority, our civic goodness are God's ordained way of putting to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

Peter fleshes us out of the next few verses, so let's keep moving here. Verse 16, he says, live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. So he continues, verse 17, you should honor everyone. Now, who does the world honor? Who does the world honor? Who does the world honor? The world honors people that can honor them in return. We don't honor people any longer because of what they can do for us. We honor people because of what Jesus has already done for us, and so we extend that honor to them.

We honor everyone. That's totally different. Now, again, I'm not saying you can't disagree. I'm not saying you can't criticize.

I'm not even saying you can't ever call on the talk radio. I'm just saying that you do so and you speak about that, but you do it with a sense of honor. I think I probably learned this most clearly from my parents. My parents had strong political convictions, and my parents would talk about those convictions with passion and sometimes with anger, but at the end of the day, they would say, but you know what? That's our president. That's our senator.

That's our government. You speak about them with respect. When you live this way, Peter says, when you are submitted for Jesus' sake and not just for personal gain, when you honor people irrespective of whether or not they can pay you back, when you are devoted to serving and blessing and doing good to others, verse 15, Peter says you can put to silence, at least a little bit, the ignorance of foolish people. Have you ever experienced the ignorance of foolish people because you are a Christian?

Have you ever experienced that? The Romans said that the first Christians were seditious. They were anti-government, that they were haters of mankind, that they were atheistic because Christians wouldn't worship idols, and that they were immoral. How does Peter tell you to put that to silence? How does he tell you to do it? By overwhelming them with goodness. The authors of this one blog, which I believe is nameless, they came to a sermon a while back where I explained that before God we're all sheep. Remember the sermon? And sheep are idiots. And that means that we ought to trust the wisdom of God, our shepherd, who guides us and not always lean on our own wisdom and understanding. Okay, so here's what this person writes on their blog.

Clearly, this is how this works. Congregation members at the summit have a legitimate question and concern, but when they come to their shepherd, quote, the shepherd who appears only to be a man of average intelligence and educated in average Christian institutions is so elevated to a higher level that he is the kingpin and cannot be questioned by the dumb sheep. Now, not to mention that in that same sermon I said that I was a sheep and that that made me an idiot before God as well, and so I depend on the wisdom and leadership of God, not on my own understanding, but they didn't hear that part.

All right, so this is where it gets good, get this. A very significant factor to consider is that 70 to 75 percent of the congregation members are college women. It certainly appears that the pastor at the summit has been elevated to mega pastor status because of the loyalty of a congregation that is comprised primarily of young college women. Turns out that their pastor is most likely just another ho-hum authoritarian dictator disguised as a cool dude passed out pastor. Now, first of all, okay, that's not true.

That's just not true. My family is 75 percent female. That is true, but this guy, I look around this morning, I see all kinds of unattractive guys in our congregation.

Yeah, there's a lot of, there are a lot of college girls and college guys. I tell guys that if they can't get a date at our church, it's like going to the ocean and complaining that you can't get wet. I understand that, but 75 percent, be serious, be serious. How do you respond to that? Well, you want a second one?

Okay, all right. I was invited a couple of years ago to speak at our city's annual Martin Luther King rally. You remember this? Because the city council of Durham told me that our church, they believe, represented the spirit of brotherly love that brought peace to our city. Okay, so this blogger on a fairly well-known site in the area said, said this, that we were hateful people at the summit and that people who hate our community should not be allowed to speak to it. They said, and I quote, this guy, talking about me, is an expletive, I'm going to leave that part out, a progressive forward-thinking city like Durham should not be allowing these people any part of honoring our heroes. Now how do you put that to rest? Do you preach angry sermons and start a blog talking about how dumb they are?

No. You do this by overwhelming them with kindness. I know it's not going to shut everybody up, but at least in some ways it'll make what they say seem a little silly. By the way, the city council responded to this blogger saying that it was because of how much our church was doing to serve the poor in this community that they were inviting me to speak on your behalf. City council said, and I summarize, you cannot argue with the fact that everywhere this city has a need, there seems to be somebody from the summit church there meeting that need. This person responds on the blog, quote, just because a church spends countless hours helping the community doesn't mean we should let them speak to us.

So my thought is maybe if you'd spend more time serving the poor and less time blogging in your mama's basement, you would be invited to speak. That's something like this. But you get the point, okay?

That's how we'll put to silence those things. I know that some of you students just get reamed. And yeah, there's a time to answer and there's a time for you to explain things.

I'm not telling you not to do that. I'm just saying at the end of the day, the way that God has ordained that you will most show the beauty of Christ is in responding like Christ did because you show a forgiveness and you show a joy and you show a beauty. I remember when I was a youth pastor down in Florida, there was a kid who was a sophomore in high school who came to faith in Christ. Very shortly thereafter, his dad, who was a very militant atheist, forbid him from coming to church.

He forbid him from doing stuff with our student ministry. And this kid comes to me just broken hearted. He's like, what do I do? What do I do?

Do I sneak out after my dad goes to sleep and sneak out and come to student activities? And I said, no. You got to keep reading your Bible because that's life. Yes, you got to obey God. But when you're in his house, you ought to obey and you ought to honor him. He wrote me a letter three years later. Three years later, I get this letter from him and he says, JD, I got to tell you what happened. He said, so I took your advice. I served. I obeyed my dad. He said, my dad came to me about three months ago.

He said, and my dad, when he came to me said, he said, son, you know, when you first became a Christian, he started to read your Bible. I thought it was crazy. I thought you'd lost your mind.

I thought this was just a fad. He said, but I've watched you for three years and I've seen this is not a fad. This is something that not only I'm seeing transform your religious life. I've watched you become this rebellious punk kid into being a man of character, a man that I now aspire to be like. Yeah, I want you. He said, he said, I want you to explain to me how it is you've come to believe and how this can apply to me. So I flew back down there to Florida.

We led his dad to Christ and I baptized him. That is how this is supposed to work. Yes, there is a time to answer, but what Peter is saying is ultimately for a cynical, for a cynical community that you're in, it is not your persuasive arguments that end up being the greatest witness.

It is how you are obedience. That is how you put the silence, the ignorance of foolish people. Thanks for listening to Summit Life with J.D. Greer. If you want to know more about this ministry, visit us online at jdgreer.com.

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Greer on Twitter. Follow along on all your favorite social media platforms and stay up to date with this ministry while filling up your timeline with encouragement from God's Word. Now let's get back to today's teaching right here on Summit Life. Verse 18, servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and the gentle, but also to the unjust. Now he's taken submission to a whole nother level. He's talking about submitting to somebody who's unjust, for this is a gracious thing. When mindful of God, one endures sorrow while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure? This is a gracious thing. This is so full of God's grace, it just drips God's grace in the sight of God. Verse 21, for to this you have been called. A lot of you college students are really obsessed right now about the call of God in your life. How about that one? I've been called to suffer unjustly for Jesus' name.

I just don't hear that make it into people's repertoire usually. To this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin. Neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. When Jesus was unjustly treated, Peter said, he actually did something different. He did not revile in return. He responded with graciousness and goodness. Y'all want to hear where I violated this this week?

Because I don't want you to think that I've like totally got this down. It was actually yesterday morning as after I had already written this sermon. So I told you I was in Montreal. My last thing that I did in Montreal was late Friday night. I get back to the hotel like 11 o'clock.

I've got to fly out to get back so I can come here to be here at church to preach to you people because I love you so much. I had to leave at like oh dark 30 on Saturday morning. I had to get up like just to crack maybe just like 4 30 is what time I had to get up.

So I'm you know I've got like three or four hours of sleep because the time I get in bed it's like midnight. And so on my little hall where I was staying in the hotel there were two or three other rooms, old hotel, and I mean whoever stayed in the rooms across from me were like partying, hearty all night long. And they were I mean it was like two, three o'clock in the morning and they're running up and down the hallways. They're yelling.

I'm sure they're drunk. And I'm like every half hour I'm waking up you know. So I wake up finally you know to get up four o'clock. I'm getting dressed. It's totally quiet.

I get all my stuff. I didn't premeditate this I promise. I walk out in the hall and as I'm opening the door I feel how heavy this door is. And it wasn't a premeditated sin but just in that moment I had a flash of inspiration. 4 30 was totally quiet and I was like bam. I'm just slamming.

I mean he's like a shotgun. And my first thought was that is exactly what First Peter is telling me not to do. And my second thought was but that felt awesome to do that.

And my third thought was I better get out of here quick. So I don't always apply this but this is what Christ did. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. There were two things that Christ had that Peter tells you that you need in order to respond the same way. Look at this. Because this is not just like go do this and fix this and be different. He says here's why.

Here's number one. Christ had faith in God's ultimate judgment. You see that phrase he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. Christ kept his eyes on the fact that ultimately God writes all wrongs. So Peter doesn't need to. The way the Apostle Paul talked about this is he used this phrase.

I love this. He said leave room for the wrath of God. When you're wronged you feel like injustice has been done which it has and there's a little tuning for it that God put inside you called a sense of justice and you feel like when you're righting the wrong you feel nigh unto deity do you not when you are paying back the wrong because you feel like you are setting the balance back properly in the universe. Paul says leave room for the wrath of God because you know every sin that is committed will be paid for fully in one or two places.

One is hell the other is on the cross of Christ. Every sin every injustice that has ever been committed against you will be paid for either in hell or by Jesus on the cross and if you believe that you won't always feel the need to pay somebody back because you know that justice will be done. If you don't believe that you will be consumed with an insane desire to get people back and that's why some of you are consumed with that because you don't believe in the ultimate justice of God which is what Christ entrusted himself to. You will be consumed with hatred and vengeance until you believe that ultimately God rights all wrongs which is what Christ entrusted himself to. Christ didn't need to have the last word on the cross he didn't you know right before he died he didn't lift up his head and say you know stick it to him God you know he didn't do that he just died because he knew that God ultimately God ultimately gets justice.

You see that? Here's the second thing Christ had it's in the next verse. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. He had love for us so he was willing to bear our sin so that through his bearing of our sins he might save us. Peter says you know in reality we were the rebels who had resisted authority we were the servants who had rebelled against our rightful master God we were the unjust ones who rejected the rightful rule of God but Jesus was the Lord who submitted to death he was the master who became a servant he was the rightful ruler who suffered our injustice and by submitting to our injustice he redeemed us.

He was the only one who ever voluntarily died. Now some of you hear that you're like no no no lots of people voluntarily died I know lots of stories of martyrs no they might have chosen the circumstances or the time of their death but they didn't choose the fact of their death we might speed up or change the location of it but nobody chooses to die that's just something that's upon Jesus was the only one who never had to die but voluntarily died in your place because he was taking the punishment for your injustice and see because he suffered under your injustice that very wound that went into his body that was the thing that ultimately became your salvation you see the next verse by his wounds you have been healed by the wounds that your injustice put on him why did Jesus have wounds who put the wounds on him you did but it was by those very wounds that your salvation came now you were strained like sheep but now you have returned to the shepherd an overseer of your souls and what he's saying is because Jesus redeemed you that way that's going to be how you redeem others your salvation was purchased because Christ did not pay you back for your injustice against him his wounds became the means of your salvation so now watch the way that other people are going to come to know redemption is through the way that you suffer through the wounds that you bear when you respond like Jesus did let me show you this let me jump down to first peter 315 where peter picks up his thought and then concludes it but in your hearts honor Christ the lord is holy remember what i told you the word holy means in peter remember separate so what does he mean there he means honor that Christ the lord is separate from the world which means that you trust that ultimately he is in charge of situations they're not in charge of him so you know Jesus is not subject to the emperor Jesus is not subject to disease Jesus is not subject to anything look down in verse 22 you see what it says that all authorities all angels all powers all of them are subject to Jesus Jesus is holy so to honor him as holy means that you trust that ultimately he is in control of every situation and nobody else to honor him as holy means that he's separated from the world and that he has so much more value than anything else the world has to separate Christ in your heart is holy means that you believe that he's in control and that he's more valuable than anything else the world gives and if you do that verse 15 you will always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you a reason for the crazy hope that's in you he said you're gonna amaze them by how you suffer to the point that they ask you about it how could you possibly have joy in the midst of that circumstances that is how you're going to show the beauty of Christ we always want the world to know the power of God by the way that he prospers us by the way that he heals us and he does that sometimes but if God only ever made you healthy and wealthy that would not be that impressive to a cynical world you know how I knew this you ever notice that whenever God does a miracle in your life and you try to explain it to somebody who doesn't really believe they always kind of like figure out a way to kind of blow it blow it off oh well statistically that's not true you're making that up probably didn't really happen it doesn't matter what kind of miracle you put in front of them they come up with some way to marginalize it but what really gets their attention is when in the midst of cancer in the midst of being fired unjustly from a job you have a joy that they know nothing about because it's something that disease and death cannot touch it is a hope that is imperishable it is a hope that goes beyond this world it is a joy that fills your heart a peace that passes all understanding and a love that speaks to them of something they've never experienced on earth because it's a love that bears suffering and that lets them see the beauty of Christ in a way that even miracles can't show him some of you are in the midst of suffering I know that I'm not trying to minimize that I'm just saying that what God is doing is he's putting his real beauty on display in you yes God is glorified when sick people get healed and get well but God is also glorified when sick people suffer well because in suffering they can show the beauty and the spirit of Christ in a way that they can't when they're always walking in these huge miracles the beauty the real glory of Christ is shown in the cross and when you mirror the cross just like Jesus did and you suffer I'm not saying you don't speak I'm not saying you don't say this is injustice but you do so with joy and hope and forgiveness that blows the world's mind sometimes the most effective tool for evangelism is how we respond to suffering that's an important shift in perspective today from pastor J.D. Greer here on Summit Life and it was part of our teaching series in First Peter called I am an Alien if you've missed any of the previous messages you can find them all free of charge at jdgreer.com our latest featured resource is all about living our lives on mission pastor J.D. and I had a conversation not long ago about how most of us don't think of ourselves as spiritual enough to be a missionary even though that's what we're all called to do here's what he had to say yeah that conversation that Jesus had with his disciples right before he went to heaven was not for a select few sacred Christians who you know had some mystical moment whereby God revealed to them that they were called to ministry that the sent identity was something Jesus gave to every single follower of Jesus and so now it's just discovering what what particular part of the mission he has for you one of the resources that we are providing to go along with this this series is a book called sent living a life that invites others to Jesus and it'll help you discover the particular way that you're sent how is God uniquely designed you what opportunities has he created in front of you how do you identify those how do you join God and what he's doing around you I think you'll find it a very practical and helpful resource and not just understanding more about the scent identity in the bible but understanding more about your unique makeup and how God wants to use that in his kingdom we'd be honored if you would support us with a financial gift of 35 or more and as our way of saying thank you we'll send you a copy of sent living a life that invites others to Jesus by heather and ashley holloman we rely entirely on the incredible generosity of our listeners to fuel everything we do to share the gospel and we couldn't be more thankful to those of you who partner with us to give today just call us at 866-335-5220 or visit us online at jdgrier.com i'm molly vidovitch be sure to join us friday as we look at marriage and the gospel from the book of first peter that's right here on summit life with jd greer today's program was produced and sponsored by jd greer ministries