For most in today’s post-modern society, pursuit of the good life means primarily chasing after objects of self gratification. Peter here instructs husbands and then gives all believers a general exhortation, which will open them to the life of blessing.
A GOOD HUSBAND DESCRIBED – verse 7
There is six times as much said to wives as there is to husbands.
a) Show consideration – this speaks of being sensitive to the wife’s deepest physical and emotional needs, see Ephesians 5:25 – 28. He is to consider her spiritual well being. To know each other requires time, honesty, openness, patience, sensitivity and love.
b) Show courtesy. A wife is like a porcelain vase, which is of great value yet must be handled gently and with honour.
c) Show companionship. Intimate companionship in marriage, the richest blessing of this life, was a foreign concept in Peter’s day. Even richer is the privilege of those who have been called together into a joint partnership of fellowship with God and together enjoy the privileges of eternal life. Peter seems to assume that they will pray together. If all is not well in the relationship, then their prayer life will be affected. The thing that hinders prayers is sin, especially being unforgiving.
A GOOD LIFE DESCRIBED – verses 8 and 9
a) Show a good attitude, verse 8.
(i) Live in harmony with one another. Acts 2:1 and Ephesians 4:13. We are in tune with the Lord, we are in harmony with our family in Christ. When we are in disharmony, sin is present.
(ii) Live in sympathy for one another. There are always people who are hurting and who need our sympathy and compassion. 1 Corinthians 12:26, Romans 12:15 and Galatians 6:2. Like Christ, the sympathetic high priest, we must share in the feelings of others.
(iii) Live in love as brothers. We say ‘blood is thicker than water’, suggesting the tie which holds a family together. Believers have a similar link, but through blood which is far more precious.
(iv) Live in compassionate love. Our hearts need to be broken with the things that break the heart of our Lord. The root of the word is inner organs of the body. It speaks of innermost feelings. In this again our Lord set us a wonderful example – Matthew 9:36, Ephesians 4:32.
(v) Live in humility. This word means literally to be ‘friendly of mind’ or to be ‘courteous in our attitude’.
b) Show a good response – be a blessing, verse 9. We who belong to Christ and are possessed by Him should bring blessing wherever we go and through whatever we do. Our natural response is to retaliate – Luke 6:28. Peter says, don’t respond to abuse with more abuse, respond with kind words. The New English Bible translate thus: ‘retaliate with blessing’. What a marvellous ministry, God has entrusted to us. Peter reminds us that when we bring blessings to others, we are blessed ourselves. That is a wonderful way to live. This is how Christians ‘get even’.
A GOOD LIFE REWARDED – verses 10 to 12
Peter sums up the whole with a quote from Psalm 34. It enforces the truth that the path to the good life is practical godliness. It is turning form sinful inclinations to walking in fellowship with God. It concerns our tongues, it concerns our actions and it concerns our attitudes. Romans 12:18, 14:19. We are to take the initiative to do all we can to restore strained relationships. It’s always more of a hassle to that than it is to let it slide. We hope that time will heal and its humbling to admit wrongs. But healthy Christian-like relationships are important because prayers are hindered if we are not sensitive and obedient. There is a way to live that hinders and a way to live that helps prayers.
CONCLUSION
Our responsibility is to please the Lord by doing good in our walk and talk. He is responsible to protect us and to answer our prayers. The world’s view of ‘good times’ will be different to the view which God has. The joys of lives in Christ are maximised when believers are united in truth and life, peaceful, gracious, sensitive, compassionate and humble like their saviour.
Sunday 25 November 2007
The Local Church
Titus Chapter l
Can we give thanks for our local church? Do we care for it, are we involved in it or are we just spectators? Titus has 3 chapters. The first chapter concerned with congregational life, it leads to the second on the family and the third which is about social or public life. If we get the church life right everything will get right. A healthy local church life is vital..
Titus is first mentioned in Galatians 2 in the gentile controversy. He was loved by Paul as a fellow believer.
Paul gave him a 3 fold task:
l. To appoint reliable elders
2. To overcome oppositions
3. Teach sound doctrine.
In verse 5 he was told to straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders. What would Paul say we need straightening out? In verse lO we are told this is not easy. Paul got verbally and physically abused by the rebellious people. These people need silencing not tolerating. They need throwing out to stop people being ruined.
l. THE CHARACTER OF AN ELDER OR PASTOR. The word elder comes from the word for old age. They need experience but age is not a problem. Young and old should be equally valued.
l Timothy 3:6 - an overseer should not be a recent convert, it is the stage they are at that matters, they need experience. Lots of people are under pressure but a pastor has spiritual responsibilities. He is not the boss of the Church, Christ is, but the pastor is responsible for their oversight. The pastor must seek help from God - Hebrews l3:7. They must give account to God. Today authority figures are seen as figures to be shot at, ministers need to realise they can be lied to, rejected, derided, deceived, physically and verbally assaulted and much more. It is the greatest task in the church despite all of this. To know someone is saved causes the greatest euphoria, it is wonderful. To have people saved under your ministry mean we meet them in eternity. The elder must give account to God. What are their motives? Do we seek God's calling? Why do we seek to do it, for good motives or bad?
What if they sin or fail? It can affect the church and drag people down. Verse 6, the elder must be blameless (not sinless or there could never be any pastors or preachers), it means free of blame or blemishes. It is a great responsibility. Paul alludes to the present character - I Corinthians 6. What he is now not what he was. The glory of the Gospel is that sinners can be washed from their sin. Whatever lapses he had, the pastor must not have two wives. He must not put one of them away, he simply cannot be an elder.
A pastor should seek to be fruitful in his ministry. Titus is told to straighten out the church. The pastor's children should believe and not be open to the charge of being wild or disobedient. They do not have to be born again but be faithful - l Timothy 3:5 - the family should be well managed, the children should be managed in spite of their outward behaviour. Verse 7 - he is entrusted with God's word, he is trusted so he should be blameless, he should not be:
a) BOSSY or overbearing.
b) BAD TEMPERED. Proverbs l5:l8 - he must be patient and have plenty of it. A patient pastor waits long term.
c) NOT A BINGE DRINKER - or intoxicated.
d) NOT A BRUISER or violent - physically or verbally.
e) NOT TO BE BENT - after money or dishonest gain. They must not preach for dishonest gain.
Rather he should be:
a) HOSPITABLE - it costs time and money. It should not be abused by people. People can be greedy and hospitality can be abused by lots of people. Hospitality is being devoted to kindness.
b) SEEK THE GOOD - verse 8, personally and corporately. Not a lover of sin.
c) SELF CONTROLLED
d) HOLD FIRMLY TO THE TRUTH.
e) ENCOURAGE OTHERS - preach sound teaching.
2. THE CHALLENGE OF THE PASTOR
There are many rebellious people, including many religious people - see verse l0. They ruin whole households by advocating works of one sort or another without faith. It can be 'positive thinking' - hedonism, not the salvation of souls. Is the pastor motivated by saving people from hell? Jesus' message was the next life not this world. Titus had to rebuke the Cretans - verse l2 to l4, rebuking is very hard. It must be based on the word of God and applied by the Spirit. We must ask 'why is he saying this?' It is for my good in this life and my soul in eternity. The sheep need to be protected from the enemies of the church - verses l5 and l6. There are many of them. The pastor must hold firm to the word of truth.
3. IT IS A LIFE OF GREAT PRIVILEGE
No one is interested in our eternal destiny except the true church of God. The pastor needs to care for people's eternal souls. Pastors have this great work. It is what the office of pastor or elder is all about, they are ordained for our eternal well being. They oversee God's work, they work for eternal dividends, not for the money. They aim to work for God's flock. If we do this we will have a good family life. The shepherd of this flock is preparing us for works of service.
Can we give thanks for our local church? Do we care for it, are we involved in it or are we just spectators? Titus has 3 chapters. The first chapter concerned with congregational life, it leads to the second on the family and the third which is about social or public life. If we get the church life right everything will get right. A healthy local church life is vital..
Titus is first mentioned in Galatians 2 in the gentile controversy. He was loved by Paul as a fellow believer.
Paul gave him a 3 fold task:
l. To appoint reliable elders
2. To overcome oppositions
3. Teach sound doctrine.
In verse 5 he was told to straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders. What would Paul say we need straightening out? In verse lO we are told this is not easy. Paul got verbally and physically abused by the rebellious people. These people need silencing not tolerating. They need throwing out to stop people being ruined.
l. THE CHARACTER OF AN ELDER OR PASTOR. The word elder comes from the word for old age. They need experience but age is not a problem. Young and old should be equally valued.
l Timothy 3:6 - an overseer should not be a recent convert, it is the stage they are at that matters, they need experience. Lots of people are under pressure but a pastor has spiritual responsibilities. He is not the boss of the Church, Christ is, but the pastor is responsible for their oversight. The pastor must seek help from God - Hebrews l3:7. They must give account to God. Today authority figures are seen as figures to be shot at, ministers need to realise they can be lied to, rejected, derided, deceived, physically and verbally assaulted and much more. It is the greatest task in the church despite all of this. To know someone is saved causes the greatest euphoria, it is wonderful. To have people saved under your ministry mean we meet them in eternity. The elder must give account to God. What are their motives? Do we seek God's calling? Why do we seek to do it, for good motives or bad?
What if they sin or fail? It can affect the church and drag people down. Verse 6, the elder must be blameless (not sinless or there could never be any pastors or preachers), it means free of blame or blemishes. It is a great responsibility. Paul alludes to the present character - I Corinthians 6. What he is now not what he was. The glory of the Gospel is that sinners can be washed from their sin. Whatever lapses he had, the pastor must not have two wives. He must not put one of them away, he simply cannot be an elder.
A pastor should seek to be fruitful in his ministry. Titus is told to straighten out the church. The pastor's children should believe and not be open to the charge of being wild or disobedient. They do not have to be born again but be faithful - l Timothy 3:5 - the family should be well managed, the children should be managed in spite of their outward behaviour. Verse 7 - he is entrusted with God's word, he is trusted so he should be blameless, he should not be:
a) BOSSY or overbearing.
b) BAD TEMPERED. Proverbs l5:l8 - he must be patient and have plenty of it. A patient pastor waits long term.
c) NOT A BINGE DRINKER - or intoxicated.
d) NOT A BRUISER or violent - physically or verbally.
e) NOT TO BE BENT - after money or dishonest gain. They must not preach for dishonest gain.
Rather he should be:
a) HOSPITABLE - it costs time and money. It should not be abused by people. People can be greedy and hospitality can be abused by lots of people. Hospitality is being devoted to kindness.
b) SEEK THE GOOD - verse 8, personally and corporately. Not a lover of sin.
c) SELF CONTROLLED
d) HOLD FIRMLY TO THE TRUTH.
e) ENCOURAGE OTHERS - preach sound teaching.
2. THE CHALLENGE OF THE PASTOR
There are many rebellious people, including many religious people - see verse l0. They ruin whole households by advocating works of one sort or another without faith. It can be 'positive thinking' - hedonism, not the salvation of souls. Is the pastor motivated by saving people from hell? Jesus' message was the next life not this world. Titus had to rebuke the Cretans - verse l2 to l4, rebuking is very hard. It must be based on the word of God and applied by the Spirit. We must ask 'why is he saying this?' It is for my good in this life and my soul in eternity. The sheep need to be protected from the enemies of the church - verses l5 and l6. There are many of them. The pastor must hold firm to the word of truth.
3. IT IS A LIFE OF GREAT PRIVILEGE
No one is interested in our eternal destiny except the true church of God. The pastor needs to care for people's eternal souls. Pastors have this great work. It is what the office of pastor or elder is all about, they are ordained for our eternal well being. They oversee God's work, they work for eternal dividends, not for the money. They aim to work for God's flock. If we do this we will have a good family life. The shepherd of this flock is preparing us for works of service.
Monday 19 November 2007
Christ's power
Matthew 14: 22 – 36
This comes after the feeding of the 5000. Christ is revealed as wonderful then and now.
This is about Jesus walking on the water, verses 22 to 33. it demonstrated the deity of Christ. We can appreciate what he did. He came to people in conflict between faith and unbelief. The disciples were with Jesus and watched and listened to him. Yet they were terrified by a storm. Peter asked Jesus to call him out of the boat, yet asked Jesus to save him. The faith that buoyed him up marries up with the fear that sank him down. Every Christian learns that there is no success without threatened failure. There was a storm here, of fear and of faith.
Why were the disciples in the storm? The lake was prone to storms, they were men who were used to storms. The storm was no accident. In Christ all things hold together, the storm was in God’s hands. The disciples were obedient disciples. Jesus made them get in and go ahead of him across the lake, they found themselves in a violent storm. Some troubles come on us because we deserve it – we are disobedient as Jonah was. Some storms come because we are faithful – criticism or persecution. Some come because of illness, we suffer doubts and confusion. In l Peter 4 we know if we are loyal to the Lord Jesus we will suffer tests and trials. The disciples knew they would have to face the storm.
Where was Jesus? What was he doing while they were suffering? He was watching over them. He had gone into the hills to pray. In Mark 6 we see he was watching over them, he could see they were struggling. He was praying for them because he was aware of their needs. We have a great High Priest who is aware of our needs. He knows our every need and he gives us what we need to face the fears of life when we ask of him in faith. He watches over us and prays for us in our ‘little boat.’
Jesus needed to be alone to pay. He needed to talk to his father, to tell him of his concerns and talk of the needs of his people. He waits until he intervenes, he waist until the storm has served his purpose – they would learn he was watching over them, the best time to teach them dependence on him. It came in the 4th watch, from 3 to 6, they were in the dark. There was the night and the storm, they had to come to an end of themselves. Do we lean too much on our own understanding? We need to come to an end of ourselves. Paul knew this and he was delivered by God. He drew near to them – verse 26. He came not as a ghost but as the Lord of power in omnipotence an d compassion. This is how he comes – in omnipotence as a sovereign protector. He is not an equal of Mohammed or Buddha. He is the great God who is over all
Who is Jesus? He is not just a Spirit being. He is all powerful. This is a picture of Jesus who is never far from us. He draws near us. He moves in a mysterious way, he cares for his people.
In the school of faith we graduate when our faith is no longer needed – in Heaven. Faith is not a leap in the dark or a bold action, it is based and rests on what God says in his word. When Jesus says to Peter ‘come’ faith responds in a sensible way. Faith is a sensible response to what Jesus says. If we do not do as he says we are insulting him because we are rejecting God’s word and offending him by what we say and do. Our faith must reach out as Peter’s did.
Jesus says those who do come to me in faith I will save. We must respond to him in faith unquestioningly trusting him, we have faith in him. Peter walked on the water, this shows how it is meant to be for us. We want to be like Jesus as a saved person. Spurgeon said faith likes to deal in great things, great projects, not in what we can do on our own. Faith is for the deep sea and fixes its compass on the stars – on the Lord Jesus where no human hand can help. How is our faith? We can recall those who had a vision for the planting of a church right here. That all the details were firm and put in place for it to grow. These believers acted in faith.
Where there is a collapse in faith we can find comfort here because Peter is like us all. When we look away from Jesus our faith is destroyed. When we look at the author of our faith all is well. When we look around we say ‘how will it all work out?’ we can look to him and will keep us all in the darkest days, he stills the storm within us. There is a 3 fold remedy. A plea for help – Lord save me, a response – the Lord helped him, the pronouncement of his word – oh ye of little faith, not mockery.
We can call out and the Lord meets our need – sometimes a word of rebuke. It calls forth a right response, the worship of the disciples. This is the right way forward for us when we have a crisis of faith. What do we think of Christ? Our culture dishonours Christ – people despise or devalue Christ very often. Jesus is often diminished by being compared to others.
Our confession of Jesus as Lord is the cornerstone of our faith. Do we believe him, honour him and do as he commands? Are we a disciple of him, under his tuition? As a Christian we want his mind to be our mind.
Is our priest who reconciles us to God? We need him to do this for us because he hates our sin and it must be punished in him – he offered an atonement for our sin, his own body offered on the cross. He is our priest between God and man.
Is he our king? Christ had a 3 fold office, prophet, priest and king. Does he rule over our lives in everything – our family, job, everything. Do we say ‘Lord rule over me.’ Our confession should be ‘Lord we know who you are, be our prophet, priest and king’, so walk in him.
This comes after the feeding of the 5000. Christ is revealed as wonderful then and now.
This is about Jesus walking on the water, verses 22 to 33. it demonstrated the deity of Christ. We can appreciate what he did. He came to people in conflict between faith and unbelief. The disciples were with Jesus and watched and listened to him. Yet they were terrified by a storm. Peter asked Jesus to call him out of the boat, yet asked Jesus to save him. The faith that buoyed him up marries up with the fear that sank him down. Every Christian learns that there is no success without threatened failure. There was a storm here, of fear and of faith.
Why were the disciples in the storm? The lake was prone to storms, they were men who were used to storms. The storm was no accident. In Christ all things hold together, the storm was in God’s hands. The disciples were obedient disciples. Jesus made them get in and go ahead of him across the lake, they found themselves in a violent storm. Some troubles come on us because we deserve it – we are disobedient as Jonah was. Some storms come because we are faithful – criticism or persecution. Some come because of illness, we suffer doubts and confusion. In l Peter 4 we know if we are loyal to the Lord Jesus we will suffer tests and trials. The disciples knew they would have to face the storm.
Where was Jesus? What was he doing while they were suffering? He was watching over them. He had gone into the hills to pray. In Mark 6 we see he was watching over them, he could see they were struggling. He was praying for them because he was aware of their needs. We have a great High Priest who is aware of our needs. He knows our every need and he gives us what we need to face the fears of life when we ask of him in faith. He watches over us and prays for us in our ‘little boat.’
Jesus needed to be alone to pay. He needed to talk to his father, to tell him of his concerns and talk of the needs of his people. He waits until he intervenes, he waist until the storm has served his purpose – they would learn he was watching over them, the best time to teach them dependence on him. It came in the 4th watch, from 3 to 6, they were in the dark. There was the night and the storm, they had to come to an end of themselves. Do we lean too much on our own understanding? We need to come to an end of ourselves. Paul knew this and he was delivered by God. He drew near to them – verse 26. He came not as a ghost but as the Lord of power in omnipotence an d compassion. This is how he comes – in omnipotence as a sovereign protector. He is not an equal of Mohammed or Buddha. He is the great God who is over all
Who is Jesus? He is not just a Spirit being. He is all powerful. This is a picture of Jesus who is never far from us. He draws near us. He moves in a mysterious way, he cares for his people.
In the school of faith we graduate when our faith is no longer needed – in Heaven. Faith is not a leap in the dark or a bold action, it is based and rests on what God says in his word. When Jesus says to Peter ‘come’ faith responds in a sensible way. Faith is a sensible response to what Jesus says. If we do not do as he says we are insulting him because we are rejecting God’s word and offending him by what we say and do. Our faith must reach out as Peter’s did.
Jesus says those who do come to me in faith I will save. We must respond to him in faith unquestioningly trusting him, we have faith in him. Peter walked on the water, this shows how it is meant to be for us. We want to be like Jesus as a saved person. Spurgeon said faith likes to deal in great things, great projects, not in what we can do on our own. Faith is for the deep sea and fixes its compass on the stars – on the Lord Jesus where no human hand can help. How is our faith? We can recall those who had a vision for the planting of a church right here. That all the details were firm and put in place for it to grow. These believers acted in faith.
Where there is a collapse in faith we can find comfort here because Peter is like us all. When we look away from Jesus our faith is destroyed. When we look at the author of our faith all is well. When we look around we say ‘how will it all work out?’ we can look to him and will keep us all in the darkest days, he stills the storm within us. There is a 3 fold remedy. A plea for help – Lord save me, a response – the Lord helped him, the pronouncement of his word – oh ye of little faith, not mockery.
We can call out and the Lord meets our need – sometimes a word of rebuke. It calls forth a right response, the worship of the disciples. This is the right way forward for us when we have a crisis of faith. What do we think of Christ? Our culture dishonours Christ – people despise or devalue Christ very often. Jesus is often diminished by being compared to others.
Our confession of Jesus as Lord is the cornerstone of our faith. Do we believe him, honour him and do as he commands? Are we a disciple of him, under his tuition? As a Christian we want his mind to be our mind.
Is our priest who reconciles us to God? We need him to do this for us because he hates our sin and it must be punished in him – he offered an atonement for our sin, his own body offered on the cross. He is our priest between God and man.
Is he our king? Christ had a 3 fold office, prophet, priest and king. Does he rule over our lives in everything – our family, job, everything. Do we say ‘Lord rule over me.’ Our confession should be ‘Lord we know who you are, be our prophet, priest and king’, so walk in him.
Sunday 18 November 2007
A gifted church
1 Peter 4
A blessed church has a global vision. We need to look also at ourselves. In verse l0 we are told ‘each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. This verse is packed with challenge and clear instruction. Our church preaches the doctrines of grace, we are a Grace Church. This affects what is preached and what happens between members. The text is clear, ‘faithfully administering God’s grace’ – the grace comes through us to others. Each of us has a gift from God, we must use to see others blessed, see 1
Corinthians 12:4 to 11, there is a diversity of gifting, the gifts are a manifestation of the work of the Spirit, each is as the Spirit determines. Every member has a gift, some have more than one. We need to all use them. The manifold grace of God is revealed by this. Romans 12:6 to 8 refers to a diversity of gifting again. It reveals a spirit filled church when the gifts are being used.
We do not all have the same gifts and all are equally valuable. The manifold gift of God is a manifestation of the Spirit. All gifts are important. We must not down play them. All parts of the body are important – see 1 Corinthians 12:12 – 31. If one suffers, all suffers. If one part of the body is injured it diminishes the whole body. Some are multi-gifted, but we must use ours for the church to be whole. The church is likened to a building or plant. Ephesians 4:6 likens the church to a body and how it is supported by Christ growing in love.
Gifts are for use and not self importance – verse 10. It is not self importance but usefulness. We must steward the gifts God has given us. We are not expected to exercise another person’s gifts, we can’t do what we are not gifted to do. Pastors, elders and deacons have a divine blue print and we can be guilty of putting square pegs in round holes, they fail because they are not suited to the work.
Are our gifts recognised by ourselves and others? What can I do to help build the church? Hospitality can be offered and we can speak when we have the opportunity. It is practical, what CAN I do? And communicating – what can I say? How can I help to build up the church of God? We can talk a lot but not at the deep level that is needed to help others. There is a therapy in this to help others.
Are the gifts recognised by other people? To avoid either square pegs in round holes or people’s gifts not being recognised we can follow the volunteer principle, who will volunteer to help meet need or will we observe the church and ask people to step up and help. Will you think you will help? There are 3 argument for a truly grace church:
a) Motivational – verse 7, the end of all things is near, we live on the edge of eternity, time is short. We won’t have our responsibilities for very long, destruction of Jerusalem or the second coming or a short life span. We have a short time, do we live like that? If we want someone else to do it. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. The whole of life is lived with this awareness, we have today, tomorrow is unknown, we must use our opportunities. When we stand before God in the last day we may have one regret, we didn’t do all we could.
b) Relational. It is not easy to serve others, however sweet life can be we have the little foxes who can spoil things. Above all, love each other deeply in deed, word and truth. We discover faults in ourselves and others, love covers over a multitude of sins. We must not have an unforgiving spirit or we will do more harm than good. The church is a community of love. We should trust and love each other. Do we do this? By love, people know we are his disciples. 1 Corinthians 13, if we do not have love it is worth nothing.
c) Elevational – see verse 11. Everything is done to the praise and glory of God. We should tell each other the very words of God. It puts duties to the very highest levels. We do things with the strength of God. What we do is not ‘to the best of my ability’ but with God’s strength. We need to make ourselves available to God. We need to seek to do more in the church and seek to see all we can do in the church – in the strength God provides. This cancels all excuses. ‘So that in all things God will be praised.’ Why do we exist, what is our primary duty? So that God’s name can be glorified. It is not duty but privilege. God is not praised through neglect or laziness. Why are we Christians? Because Christ died for us. Everything should focus on him. We act in His strength, His gifting, His love. So he gets the glory. We must find our gift and act in his strength and God will bless.
A blessed church has a global vision. We need to look also at ourselves. In verse l0 we are told ‘each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. This verse is packed with challenge and clear instruction. Our church preaches the doctrines of grace, we are a Grace Church. This affects what is preached and what happens between members. The text is clear, ‘faithfully administering God’s grace’ – the grace comes through us to others. Each of us has a gift from God, we must use to see others blessed, see 1
Corinthians 12:4 to 11, there is a diversity of gifting, the gifts are a manifestation of the work of the Spirit, each is as the Spirit determines. Every member has a gift, some have more than one. We need to all use them. The manifold grace of God is revealed by this. Romans 12:6 to 8 refers to a diversity of gifting again. It reveals a spirit filled church when the gifts are being used.
We do not all have the same gifts and all are equally valuable. The manifold gift of God is a manifestation of the Spirit. All gifts are important. We must not down play them. All parts of the body are important – see 1 Corinthians 12:12 – 31. If one suffers, all suffers. If one part of the body is injured it diminishes the whole body. Some are multi-gifted, but we must use ours for the church to be whole. The church is likened to a building or plant. Ephesians 4:6 likens the church to a body and how it is supported by Christ growing in love.
Gifts are for use and not self importance – verse 10. It is not self importance but usefulness. We must steward the gifts God has given us. We are not expected to exercise another person’s gifts, we can’t do what we are not gifted to do. Pastors, elders and deacons have a divine blue print and we can be guilty of putting square pegs in round holes, they fail because they are not suited to the work.
Are our gifts recognised by ourselves and others? What can I do to help build the church? Hospitality can be offered and we can speak when we have the opportunity. It is practical, what CAN I do? And communicating – what can I say? How can I help to build up the church of God? We can talk a lot but not at the deep level that is needed to help others. There is a therapy in this to help others.
Are the gifts recognised by other people? To avoid either square pegs in round holes or people’s gifts not being recognised we can follow the volunteer principle, who will volunteer to help meet need or will we observe the church and ask people to step up and help. Will you think you will help? There are 3 argument for a truly grace church:
a) Motivational – verse 7, the end of all things is near, we live on the edge of eternity, time is short. We won’t have our responsibilities for very long, destruction of Jerusalem or the second coming or a short life span. We have a short time, do we live like that? If we want someone else to do it. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. The whole of life is lived with this awareness, we have today, tomorrow is unknown, we must use our opportunities. When we stand before God in the last day we may have one regret, we didn’t do all we could.
b) Relational. It is not easy to serve others, however sweet life can be we have the little foxes who can spoil things. Above all, love each other deeply in deed, word and truth. We discover faults in ourselves and others, love covers over a multitude of sins. We must not have an unforgiving spirit or we will do more harm than good. The church is a community of love. We should trust and love each other. Do we do this? By love, people know we are his disciples. 1 Corinthians 13, if we do not have love it is worth nothing.
c) Elevational – see verse 11. Everything is done to the praise and glory of God. We should tell each other the very words of God. It puts duties to the very highest levels. We do things with the strength of God. What we do is not ‘to the best of my ability’ but with God’s strength. We need to make ourselves available to God. We need to seek to do more in the church and seek to see all we can do in the church – in the strength God provides. This cancels all excuses. ‘So that in all things God will be praised.’ Why do we exist, what is our primary duty? So that God’s name can be glorified. It is not duty but privilege. God is not praised through neglect or laziness. Why are we Christians? Because Christ died for us. Everything should focus on him. We act in His strength, His gifting, His love. So he gets the glory. We must find our gift and act in his strength and God will bless.
Being good servants and citizens
Genesis 18:9-15, 21:1-7, 1 Peter 3:1-6
Christians should be good, obedient citizens and good workers. Wives should be compliant and submissive. It is hard to be a Christian when the government target you or a wife when you have an unbelieving husband. In the 1st century you were not following a husband’s spiritual lead. Peter is instructing them to live in a way so as to not compromise their faith or unnecessarily antagonise unbelieving husbands. He talks to those who were converted after marriage.
1. WHO ARE THE WIVES PETER IS WRITING TO?
a) These were women who lived hoping in God – Hebrews 11:11. Sarah received power to conceive because she hoped in God. She laughed at God because she was incredulous. God’s rebuke reminded Sarah that nothing was too hard for the Lord and caused her to trust and hope in God. She had no record of anyone else experiencing this. She realised God had blessed her. She said God had brought her laughter. A Christian puts their hope in God and looks away from this world. They have a living hope – Psalm 42:5, the psalmist rebukes his soul and says ‘hope in God’. Sarah did this. The hope drove out fear and we aim to please the Lord. If their husband’s spiritual leadership fails they get strength from the Lord. Have you put your hope in God for the future?
b) These were women whose hope drove out fear. People like Sarah fight anxiety in their hearts by holding the promises of God.
2. WHAT ARE THESE WIVES TO DO?
Peter assumed they would be faithful to their vows. Peter holds up Sarah’s obedience as an example of Biblical submission. Christians are called to live with an unbeliever regardless of whether they were easy or difficult. Sarah viewed Abraham as her master, she respected Abraham as the head of the home. This couple are a good example for Peter to use. Both made mistakes and Sarah was a very beautiful woman.
a) Both made mistakes – Sarah put Abraham up to having a child by Hagar.
b) She had inner and outer beauty.
c) She is not recorded as calling Abraham Lord, but she was respectful in the way she spoke, the respect should be inner and outer. It does not mean she has to agree or believe all he says. She can have her own mind.
3. WHAT DO WIVES DO IN DIFFICULT SITUATIONS?
He speaks in particular about disbelieving husbands. What about alcoholics etc?
a) What about submission to an abusive husband? You can call in the law or the elders to protect her life. She should not fear her husband more than she fears God.
b) What about submission when he asks her to do wrong? Abraham tried to pass Sarah off as his sister, he was lying. A wife has to do what is right, obey God. If she has to disobey her husband she should tell him that the love of God is more important.
c) What about being submissive and a husband’s persistent sin? She should confront persistent sin but with discretion so he knows she really cares. Persistent sin is not usually an excuse to leave a spouse. We should pray and stay faithful to our marriage vows.
4. WHAT IS THE ATTRACTIVENESS WIVES ARE TO SHOW SO AS TO WIN OVER THEIR HUSBANDS?
Our conduct is often more powerful a message than our words. The power of a Christ like life is better than pressure tactics, this is a principle rather than a promise. Peter’s hope is that husbands will notice attractive behaviour and through it see the source of it – a relationship with Christ.
a) Attractiveness involves purity – 1 Timothy 5:22, that is moral goodness.
b) Attractiveness involves reverence. That is, the fear of God.
c) Attractiveness involves not nagging – Proverbs 21:9. Solomon said a quarrelsome wife is awful. If he is not won by ‘words of truth’ he may be won by a ‘life of truth’. A husband once nicknamed his wife Peg after Pegasus who was an everlasting nag. He may become resistant to the truth or sullen and withdrawn to prevent nagging. He may be amazed at the change in his wife’s life and what has happened to her after conversion. Wives should pray for their husbands and look for opportunities to witness, but God will convert him. Augustine wrote of his mother Monica and how she witnessed to her husband by her behaviour. At the end of his life he was converted and they walked together in the Lord.
d) Attractiveness involves a gentle and quiet spirit. Gentleness is meekness, quiet means calm, not combative – see Proverbs 15:1. It is a heart that is not easily ruffled. She doesn’t yell back at her husband and keeps calm.
e) Attractiveness is the inner person over outward appearance – verses 3 to 5. Women should not neglect their outward appearance but should aim to win her husband over by the new person within. Peter emphasises inner beauty is attractive to everyone even with the wrinkles of old age. Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me, All his wonderful passion and purity; O Thou Spirit divine, all my nature refine. Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. Beauty is meaningless unless it is inner beauty it is transitory unless it comes from God. Jesus was never more beautiful than when he suffered.
Christians should be good, obedient citizens and good workers. Wives should be compliant and submissive. It is hard to be a Christian when the government target you or a wife when you have an unbelieving husband. In the 1st century you were not following a husband’s spiritual lead. Peter is instructing them to live in a way so as to not compromise their faith or unnecessarily antagonise unbelieving husbands. He talks to those who were converted after marriage.
1. WHO ARE THE WIVES PETER IS WRITING TO?
a) These were women who lived hoping in God – Hebrews 11:11. Sarah received power to conceive because she hoped in God. She laughed at God because she was incredulous. God’s rebuke reminded Sarah that nothing was too hard for the Lord and caused her to trust and hope in God. She had no record of anyone else experiencing this. She realised God had blessed her. She said God had brought her laughter. A Christian puts their hope in God and looks away from this world. They have a living hope – Psalm 42:5, the psalmist rebukes his soul and says ‘hope in God’. Sarah did this. The hope drove out fear and we aim to please the Lord. If their husband’s spiritual leadership fails they get strength from the Lord. Have you put your hope in God for the future?
b) These were women whose hope drove out fear. People like Sarah fight anxiety in their hearts by holding the promises of God.
2. WHAT ARE THESE WIVES TO DO?
Peter assumed they would be faithful to their vows. Peter holds up Sarah’s obedience as an example of Biblical submission. Christians are called to live with an unbeliever regardless of whether they were easy or difficult. Sarah viewed Abraham as her master, she respected Abraham as the head of the home. This couple are a good example for Peter to use. Both made mistakes and Sarah was a very beautiful woman.
a) Both made mistakes – Sarah put Abraham up to having a child by Hagar.
b) She had inner and outer beauty.
c) She is not recorded as calling Abraham Lord, but she was respectful in the way she spoke, the respect should be inner and outer. It does not mean she has to agree or believe all he says. She can have her own mind.
3. WHAT DO WIVES DO IN DIFFICULT SITUATIONS?
He speaks in particular about disbelieving husbands. What about alcoholics etc?
a) What about submission to an abusive husband? You can call in the law or the elders to protect her life. She should not fear her husband more than she fears God.
b) What about submission when he asks her to do wrong? Abraham tried to pass Sarah off as his sister, he was lying. A wife has to do what is right, obey God. If she has to disobey her husband she should tell him that the love of God is more important.
c) What about being submissive and a husband’s persistent sin? She should confront persistent sin but with discretion so he knows she really cares. Persistent sin is not usually an excuse to leave a spouse. We should pray and stay faithful to our marriage vows.
4. WHAT IS THE ATTRACTIVENESS WIVES ARE TO SHOW SO AS TO WIN OVER THEIR HUSBANDS?
Our conduct is often more powerful a message than our words. The power of a Christ like life is better than pressure tactics, this is a principle rather than a promise. Peter’s hope is that husbands will notice attractive behaviour and through it see the source of it – a relationship with Christ.
a) Attractiveness involves purity – 1 Timothy 5:22, that is moral goodness.
b) Attractiveness involves reverence. That is, the fear of God.
c) Attractiveness involves not nagging – Proverbs 21:9. Solomon said a quarrelsome wife is awful. If he is not won by ‘words of truth’ he may be won by a ‘life of truth’. A husband once nicknamed his wife Peg after Pegasus who was an everlasting nag. He may become resistant to the truth or sullen and withdrawn to prevent nagging. He may be amazed at the change in his wife’s life and what has happened to her after conversion. Wives should pray for their husbands and look for opportunities to witness, but God will convert him. Augustine wrote of his mother Monica and how she witnessed to her husband by her behaviour. At the end of his life he was converted and they walked together in the Lord.
d) Attractiveness involves a gentle and quiet spirit. Gentleness is meekness, quiet means calm, not combative – see Proverbs 15:1. It is a heart that is not easily ruffled. She doesn’t yell back at her husband and keeps calm.
e) Attractiveness is the inner person over outward appearance – verses 3 to 5. Women should not neglect their outward appearance but should aim to win her husband over by the new person within. Peter emphasises inner beauty is attractive to everyone even with the wrinkles of old age. Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me, All his wonderful passion and purity; O Thou Spirit divine, all my nature refine. Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. Beauty is meaningless unless it is inner beauty it is transitory unless it comes from God. Jesus was never more beautiful than when he suffered.
The family that survived
Genesis 6
This is the story of a family that survived. Why did Noah and his family not perish? We can experience the same blessing as Noah and be like him. Verse 8 tells us Noah found grace or favour with God. Grace is a very significant word – UNDESERVED kindness. Noah was born like everyone else, but he found grace.
NOAH FOUND GRACE FROM GOD.
Noah was willing to accept God’s view of his own sin and he turned from that sin to God, seeking His grace. Grace is God’s doing for us what we could never do for ourselves. It is God coming to our rescue. Grace found Noah and saved him and his family. All like him were saved by grace. He was aware of God’s grace in the darkest hour, there was life and hope when we fear for things. We can look to the Lord for forgiveness. It is like being in an impossibly dangerous situation like in a cave that is sealed and we are rescued by others. We chose to sin, God rescued us by his grace. We need to pray ‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’
NOAH WAS RIGHT WITH GOD.
Noah believed God and his faith was counted as righteousness. The grace given to him made him live a life that pleased God – Ezekiel l4:l4. Noah was not perfect but was free from obvious faults.
NOAH WALKED WITH GOD.
Only Noah and Enoch are described here as walking with God. He knew God personally and communicated with Him daily. He went in the same direction God went. He was in step with God. He went the same way as God and took his hand like a little child, you go at the same pace. It is a picture of intimacy and friendship. The Christian life is a growing intimacy with God. Amos 3:3 Ezekiel 5:8. Psalm l:l describes Noah. If you walk with God you will be blessed. If you don’t walk with God you will not stand as Noah did. You will lose everything.
NOAH LED HIS FAMILY GOD’S WAY.
He was the spiritual leader of his wife, sons and daughters-in-laws. It was a negative environment and Noah led them and this led to their salvation. The family had enough faith to follow the head. Noah had enough faith to inspire them to follow his example. It should encourage us to believe so deeply that others believe in God. We may save our families and others besides. The Taylor family – including Hudson Taylor of the China Inland Mission – show millions can be saved through the Christian witness of parents. It can be destroyed in one generation as happened to Earnest Hemingway, the novelist. He had an evangelical Christian upbringing but rebelled against and ended up killing himself when he was 6l.
NOAH WAS DIFFERENT FROM HIS CONTEMPORARIES
a) The state of things. God saw the world was corrupt.
Single acts can have unforeseen consequences.
(i) Adam and Eve fell from innocence into sin, slavery and death. The children shared this genetic-spiritual union in the fall with their parents. We call this sin of nature original, because everyone is born with this bias, and it is the actual source of sins – Romans 5:l8. The globalisation of sin is a consequence of Adam. Paul describes two men – Adam who brought sin by one act, Christ, the second Adam, brought righteousness.
(ii) Nobody has a perfectly good heart – Psalm 5l:5. No one is born righteous, we do not naturally want to love God.
(iii) What does the world say we can do? – educate, counsel, prozac. We try to set up a nanny state to cure sin. We also try to redefine sin to get rid of guilt. Everything is a lifestyle choice. We see the idea of sin a medieval. We can try to keep sinning so we don’t feel guilty any more, but people are guilty of sin. Everything is seen as an illness and not really sin at all. This thinking cuts off people from redemption.
(iv) What happens when a society thinks like this? The unthinkable became thinkable, then speak-able, then do-able, then praised. In a civilized society evil thoughts stay thoughts. In the days of the flood thoughts became words then deeds. Leading entertainers lives are often utterly immoral.
b) The state of Noah. Noah was a bright shining light in the prevailing moral darkness, distinguished from the world. Noah stood his ground. He was counter-cultural, as the lives of Christians should be in this age. Noah lived when the World was unprepared for judgement, as people are today.
NOAH WAS AN OBEDIENT MAN – Hebrews ll:7
God said it and that settled it for Noah. He did it simply because God said so. It was a remarkable faith. It had never even rained. All he had was God’s word, and he believed. He could not explain where the water would come from but he had the faith to answer people. Christians have reality present, but the future unseen. We know Heaven and Hell are going to be realities in the future.
NOAH WAS A COURAGEOUS MAN. 2 Peter 2:5
Noah preached righteousness, he warned, he invited them into the Ark. Hoah had places in the ark for people who were willing to repent. Jesus is like an ark. There is willingness to receive people so we can have a better life and hope. How do we react to this?
This is the story of a family that survived. Why did Noah and his family not perish? We can experience the same blessing as Noah and be like him. Verse 8 tells us Noah found grace or favour with God. Grace is a very significant word – UNDESERVED kindness. Noah was born like everyone else, but he found grace.
NOAH FOUND GRACE FROM GOD.
Noah was willing to accept God’s view of his own sin and he turned from that sin to God, seeking His grace. Grace is God’s doing for us what we could never do for ourselves. It is God coming to our rescue. Grace found Noah and saved him and his family. All like him were saved by grace. He was aware of God’s grace in the darkest hour, there was life and hope when we fear for things. We can look to the Lord for forgiveness. It is like being in an impossibly dangerous situation like in a cave that is sealed and we are rescued by others. We chose to sin, God rescued us by his grace. We need to pray ‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’
NOAH WAS RIGHT WITH GOD.
Noah believed God and his faith was counted as righteousness. The grace given to him made him live a life that pleased God – Ezekiel l4:l4. Noah was not perfect but was free from obvious faults.
NOAH WALKED WITH GOD.
Only Noah and Enoch are described here as walking with God. He knew God personally and communicated with Him daily. He went in the same direction God went. He was in step with God. He went the same way as God and took his hand like a little child, you go at the same pace. It is a picture of intimacy and friendship. The Christian life is a growing intimacy with God. Amos 3:3 Ezekiel 5:8. Psalm l:l describes Noah. If you walk with God you will be blessed. If you don’t walk with God you will not stand as Noah did. You will lose everything.
NOAH LED HIS FAMILY GOD’S WAY.
He was the spiritual leader of his wife, sons and daughters-in-laws. It was a negative environment and Noah led them and this led to their salvation. The family had enough faith to follow the head. Noah had enough faith to inspire them to follow his example. It should encourage us to believe so deeply that others believe in God. We may save our families and others besides. The Taylor family – including Hudson Taylor of the China Inland Mission – show millions can be saved through the Christian witness of parents. It can be destroyed in one generation as happened to Earnest Hemingway, the novelist. He had an evangelical Christian upbringing but rebelled against and ended up killing himself when he was 6l.
NOAH WAS DIFFERENT FROM HIS CONTEMPORARIES
a) The state of things. God saw the world was corrupt.
Single acts can have unforeseen consequences.
(i) Adam and Eve fell from innocence into sin, slavery and death. The children shared this genetic-spiritual union in the fall with their parents. We call this sin of nature original, because everyone is born with this bias, and it is the actual source of sins – Romans 5:l8. The globalisation of sin is a consequence of Adam. Paul describes two men – Adam who brought sin by one act, Christ, the second Adam, brought righteousness.
(ii) Nobody has a perfectly good heart – Psalm 5l:5. No one is born righteous, we do not naturally want to love God.
(iii) What does the world say we can do? – educate, counsel, prozac. We try to set up a nanny state to cure sin. We also try to redefine sin to get rid of guilt. Everything is a lifestyle choice. We see the idea of sin a medieval. We can try to keep sinning so we don’t feel guilty any more, but people are guilty of sin. Everything is seen as an illness and not really sin at all. This thinking cuts off people from redemption.
(iv) What happens when a society thinks like this? The unthinkable became thinkable, then speak-able, then do-able, then praised. In a civilized society evil thoughts stay thoughts. In the days of the flood thoughts became words then deeds. Leading entertainers lives are often utterly immoral.
b) The state of Noah. Noah was a bright shining light in the prevailing moral darkness, distinguished from the world. Noah stood his ground. He was counter-cultural, as the lives of Christians should be in this age. Noah lived when the World was unprepared for judgement, as people are today.
NOAH WAS AN OBEDIENT MAN – Hebrews ll:7
God said it and that settled it for Noah. He did it simply because God said so. It was a remarkable faith. It had never even rained. All he had was God’s word, and he believed. He could not explain where the water would come from but he had the faith to answer people. Christians have reality present, but the future unseen. We know Heaven and Hell are going to be realities in the future.
NOAH WAS A COURAGEOUS MAN. 2 Peter 2:5
Noah preached righteousness, he warned, he invited them into the Ark. Hoah had places in the ark for people who were willing to repent. Jesus is like an ark. There is willingness to receive people so we can have a better life and hope. How do we react to this?
Why Christ suffered.
John 10:11 – 30, 1 Peter 2: 24 to 25
Peter was writing to people in this section who were slaves. He told them to submit to the established order. For some with oppressive masters this was very hard. To not retaliate but to bear suffering graciously would bring glory to the Lord Jesus who died for them. We want to avoid suffering. Peter reminded them of why Christ suffered. Things are not fair. Sometimes we make bad decisions. Sometimes people are unfair, life is like that. Jesus suffered unfairly, he did no wrong or ever sinned yet he suffered. We should follow his example. What would Jesus do in our place. We should want to be like Christ especially when we suffer for righteousness sake. We suffer only a tiny fraction of what he suffered, he could have escaped his suffering but he silently endured so we could have our sins forgiven. He suffered out of choice – see John 10:11 – 30. To suffer is often the only right choice we can make. We learn the best lessons when we suffer with tears in our eyes. Jesus left judgement to God and did not retaliate. In China Christians suffer much
IN CHRIST’S SUFFERING WAS A PATTERN FOR US – verse 21
It was innocent, silent, a choice and in faith
HIS SUFFERING WAS PERSONAL
He did not make recompense by offering a victim, but was himself the sacrifice. He was the victim of sin, a sinless one who paid the penalty for the sin of his people. Only he could do it.
HIS SUFFERING WAS SUBSTITUTIONARY – Isaiah 53:4
This chapter is full of this sort of language. The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all etc. In the Old Testament people’s sin were symbolically laid on the animal and it was killed. He was treated as if he had been a sinner, in order that we might be treated as if we had not sinned; as if we were righteous – 1 Corinthians 15:1. It was a legal transaction. God the father transferred to God the son the penalty due to our sin. We do not punish according to what people deserve today. Many think God will overlook their sin when they are compared to others. We are free of sin’s consequences if Christ took our place.
HIS SUFFERING WAS SEVERE – Deuteronomy 21:22, Galatians 3:13
He died on the tree, this term is deliberately chosen by Peter and not the cross. Deuteronomy 21:22 – the dead body on the tree meant he was under a curse. It was a symbol of shame. It was a warning to everyone. Jesus took God’s curse – see Galatians 3:13. Crucifixion was a Roman practice, not Jewish, to be hung on a tree was the maximum curse. Can we ever understand how the holy, harmless and undefiled Son of God felt as he was treated as if he were a vile criminal? He knew and did nothing but good in the world. He was naked and reviled for sins he had not committed.
HIS SUFFERING WAS REDEMPTIVE
The power of sin is so great that we can’t be delivered from it by promising to turn over a new leaf or by sheer will power. Sin has separated us from God. There had to be death of our old attitude to sin and a resurrection to new life in Jesus Christ. Romans 6 to 8. Your old self dies and we have a new life in Christ. The person who is now living is the new you. Colossians 3:l – 4, we have been changed, live like you have been saved.
HIS SUFFERING WAS CURATIVE.
Isaiah 53:5 – his wounds are a synonym for his death. The cross is the place where all the wounds of sin are healed. Sin has brought emotional problems, guilt and depression. If you suffer from emotional problems – guilt, anxiety, depression, anger or whatever – there is healing in the cross of Christ. There is the answer to answer for guilt, hopelessness and depression. Matthew 8:l6. Does it give us the right to expect physical healing because of the atonement? It is a wrong understanding. Jesus healed physically to demonstrate heavenly truths. Jesus healed people to illustrate the physical healing all believers will experience in the glory yet to come. Disease and death cannot be permanently removed until sin is permanently removed. We still see death and sin. We will only be delivered from it at the resurrection. Jesus conquered sin but his people sinned, Jesus conquered sickness but we still get ill. We can only be healed and delivered from death in the new world.
HIS SUFFERING WAS RECONCILING
a) It speaks of our past – you were. We were like sheep going astray. Sheep are silly, gullible, often dirty and defenceless. Domestic sheep need care of a shepherd. If they are not prevented they will constantly wander. Peter sees in these slaves who had been wandering but were now part of a flock. Why do they wander? They need a shepherd to guide them. The lost do not come back when it is lost. We are self willed like a silly lost sheep. Jesus seeks us today.
b) It speaks of our present and future – but now. We can know a bright future if we have his influence. There has been a turning around, a conversion. Luke 22:32.
(i) A coming to Christ the shepherd – Isaiah 40 and John l0. The Christians clung to this image of the Christ the good shepherd, he will never let us down.
(ii) A coming to Christ the overseer. We are under the care of the Good Shepherd. He uses a rod and staff when he must. If you’re seeking to follow Him, then it ought to be a comforting thought. Jesus oversees his sheep and makes sure they are all there and cares for them. Believers have returned to the overseer and shepherd of their souls. Christ is our overseer, it comforts us if we know this. If he is not our shepherd we will not go to Heaven, we will wander and be lost.
Peter was writing to people in this section who were slaves. He told them to submit to the established order. For some with oppressive masters this was very hard. To not retaliate but to bear suffering graciously would bring glory to the Lord Jesus who died for them. We want to avoid suffering. Peter reminded them of why Christ suffered. Things are not fair. Sometimes we make bad decisions. Sometimes people are unfair, life is like that. Jesus suffered unfairly, he did no wrong or ever sinned yet he suffered. We should follow his example. What would Jesus do in our place. We should want to be like Christ especially when we suffer for righteousness sake. We suffer only a tiny fraction of what he suffered, he could have escaped his suffering but he silently endured so we could have our sins forgiven. He suffered out of choice – see John 10:11 – 30. To suffer is often the only right choice we can make. We learn the best lessons when we suffer with tears in our eyes. Jesus left judgement to God and did not retaliate. In China Christians suffer much
IN CHRIST’S SUFFERING WAS A PATTERN FOR US – verse 21
It was innocent, silent, a choice and in faith
HIS SUFFERING WAS PERSONAL
He did not make recompense by offering a victim, but was himself the sacrifice. He was the victim of sin, a sinless one who paid the penalty for the sin of his people. Only he could do it.
HIS SUFFERING WAS SUBSTITUTIONARY – Isaiah 53:4
This chapter is full of this sort of language. The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all etc. In the Old Testament people’s sin were symbolically laid on the animal and it was killed. He was treated as if he had been a sinner, in order that we might be treated as if we had not sinned; as if we were righteous – 1 Corinthians 15:1. It was a legal transaction. God the father transferred to God the son the penalty due to our sin. We do not punish according to what people deserve today. Many think God will overlook their sin when they are compared to others. We are free of sin’s consequences if Christ took our place.
HIS SUFFERING WAS SEVERE – Deuteronomy 21:22, Galatians 3:13
He died on the tree, this term is deliberately chosen by Peter and not the cross. Deuteronomy 21:22 – the dead body on the tree meant he was under a curse. It was a symbol of shame. It was a warning to everyone. Jesus took God’s curse – see Galatians 3:13. Crucifixion was a Roman practice, not Jewish, to be hung on a tree was the maximum curse. Can we ever understand how the holy, harmless and undefiled Son of God felt as he was treated as if he were a vile criminal? He knew and did nothing but good in the world. He was naked and reviled for sins he had not committed.
HIS SUFFERING WAS REDEMPTIVE
The power of sin is so great that we can’t be delivered from it by promising to turn over a new leaf or by sheer will power. Sin has separated us from God. There had to be death of our old attitude to sin and a resurrection to new life in Jesus Christ. Romans 6 to 8. Your old self dies and we have a new life in Christ. The person who is now living is the new you. Colossians 3:l – 4, we have been changed, live like you have been saved.
HIS SUFFERING WAS CURATIVE.
Isaiah 53:5 – his wounds are a synonym for his death. The cross is the place where all the wounds of sin are healed. Sin has brought emotional problems, guilt and depression. If you suffer from emotional problems – guilt, anxiety, depression, anger or whatever – there is healing in the cross of Christ. There is the answer to answer for guilt, hopelessness and depression. Matthew 8:l6. Does it give us the right to expect physical healing because of the atonement? It is a wrong understanding. Jesus healed physically to demonstrate heavenly truths. Jesus healed people to illustrate the physical healing all believers will experience in the glory yet to come. Disease and death cannot be permanently removed until sin is permanently removed. We still see death and sin. We will only be delivered from it at the resurrection. Jesus conquered sin but his people sinned, Jesus conquered sickness but we still get ill. We can only be healed and delivered from death in the new world.
HIS SUFFERING WAS RECONCILING
a) It speaks of our past – you were. We were like sheep going astray. Sheep are silly, gullible, often dirty and defenceless. Domestic sheep need care of a shepherd. If they are not prevented they will constantly wander. Peter sees in these slaves who had been wandering but were now part of a flock. Why do they wander? They need a shepherd to guide them. The lost do not come back when it is lost. We are self willed like a silly lost sheep. Jesus seeks us today.
b) It speaks of our present and future – but now. We can know a bright future if we have his influence. There has been a turning around, a conversion. Luke 22:32.
(i) A coming to Christ the shepherd – Isaiah 40 and John l0. The Christians clung to this image of the Christ the good shepherd, he will never let us down.
(ii) A coming to Christ the overseer. We are under the care of the Good Shepherd. He uses a rod and staff when he must. If you’re seeking to follow Him, then it ought to be a comforting thought. Jesus oversees his sheep and makes sure they are all there and cares for them. Believers have returned to the overseer and shepherd of their souls. Christ is our overseer, it comforts us if we know this. If he is not our shepherd we will not go to Heaven, we will wander and be lost.
The End of an Era
Matthew 24:32 – 44, Genesis 6:1 – 8
We go back to the early world. We now come to the end of this era. 3 men marked the genealogy, Adam – who was the first sinner; Enoch who shows that if we walk with God we will conquer death and Noah who tells us there will be a judgement. This chapter is intriguing – men had lost part of the likeness to God. This chapter builds up to the Flood.
1. THIS PERIOD IN HISTORY HAD DISTINCT FEATURES – Matthew 24:37.
This speaks of the days before the flood – what men did before the flood. The Bible speaks of ages and how they ended. A time of ignorance before Christ returns. The Dark ages were times of ignorance and moral uncertainty. In His Olivet discourse He speaks of how things will be immediately before he comes for a second time. He compares it to the time of Noah. These are Epochs in history with similar characteristics. The spiritual condition before the flood are the same as they will be before Christ’s return. The record of history has been the collapse of one civilization after another. The Bible speaks of times and seasons. If we are living in the days immediately preceding the return of Jesus Christ we shall find similar conditions to the days of Noah. It was business as usual – marriage, work and supporting family. It was a time of technological advancement. They knew so much but understood very little. Romans l – they professed to be wise but were fools. Today we have achieved so much but it is accompanied by much moral darkness and ignorance. Jesus said people in Noah’s time went about their business oblivious to what Noah was saying – of ‘crazy Noah’ who was building a boat when none was needed, apparently. He warned them of impending judgement but they went their own way. Perhaps they laughed at him, perhaps they got annoyed at him for making a ‘special claim’. None of them took any notice of what he said.
2. THIS PERIOD IN HISTORY SAW COMPROMISE – verse l
Who were the sons of God? There are several views, but the application os the same – men compromised.
a) Human rulers who were despots, striving for fame and fertility? The daughters of men were beautiful, but they were fallen women.
b) They were fallen angels in human bodies who married human women. There a lot of problems here – angels having sex with people, it sounds like Greek mythology – its not really tenable.
c) The best view is that they were the believing descendants if Seth who married the line of Cain. People who compromised. It was the intermarriage of believing men and unbelieving women. It was Satan seeking to turn a generation away from God. It was a sexually promiscuous age where men took the women they wanted. They ignored any character or spiritual traits. The rule is ‘think first and feel later’. The sexual drive is very strong and can neutralise or weaken faith. We can choose what is wrong. The Sethites compromised and chose a faith that led to sin. It contaminated a whole society. In Romans l Paul describes a fallen society, it began in Genesis 6.
3. THIS PERIOD WAS NOTED FOR CORRUPT MEN – verse 4
Who were the Nephalim? There is only one other mention in the Bible – Numbers l3 when the spies went into the land and saw these giant men, they called them Nephalim, they felt dispirited and alarmed by what they saw. The word Nephalim means ‘to fall upon’ and thus points to men of violence who had a reputation of falling upon their enemies. They were malicious and became notorious around the world. They were men who could sway multitudes to do what they wanted - see Genghis Khan, Hitler and Stalin etc, they led their people to kill millions. Al Qaeda will get their people to use dirty bombs. These people were notorious for their violence, they embodied the worst traits in men. They lived a long time – everyone did. They became very skilled in what they did. When good men live a long time it can be good, what if evil men live a long time and become skilled in evil and torture. Unchecked evil is an unimaginable horror. People lived like that in the old world. The Nephalim refined their violence over a long time. For the good of humanity such cancer needs cutting out, so God acts, he uncreates the world and washes away all vestiges of human wickedness that made life so miserable. He brings the Hitlers and Stalins of this world to a short end.
4. THIS PERIOD SAW GOD’S PATIENCE RUN OUT – verse 3.
God only permits wickedness a short reign. God will judge wickedness, he gives them a count down – one hundred and twenty years, then people face judgement. Noah was boat building for all that time. It was a warning. Noah was famous world wide and he was preaching a warning, why did they not listen? Romans l describes the breakdown of society, there have been occurrences of this before, but here it was everywhere. 2 Peter 2:5. Churchill warned politicians and society about the rise of Hitler, that he would be a danger to the world. People ignored him and did not want to listen or contemplate what he was saying. It was too late and Hitler did attack the world and cause harm. God warns us today, we are all accountable to God for what we do. We don’t like to think about this. We don’t like to listen to bad news. God is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. He postpones judgement to give us time to repent. God is calling us and is calling you, he wants you to hear good news, his son has been sent to die on the cross and to rise again so we have the hope of a better world. God’s patience will not last forever. Here a l20 years, is the time limit.
5. THIS PERIOD SAW GOD ANNOUNCE JUDGEMENT – verse 5
Grief is a mixture of love and anger at what causes pain. God’s grief is a sign of his great love. The Lord is not some unfeeling God who watches in benign disinterest while men and women destroy themselves. It grieves Him to see our rebellion and sin, and He only brings judgement after he has warned and appealed to us to turn from our sin. When He does judge, his judgement are always just. He has a right to judge man. Ezekiel 33:ll. He appeals to take account of unpalatable facts, we are accountable to Him. ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways. Why then will you die? We must put our trust in the Son of the Living God so we can live in Heaven with God. May God help us to do this.
We go back to the early world. We now come to the end of this era. 3 men marked the genealogy, Adam – who was the first sinner; Enoch who shows that if we walk with God we will conquer death and Noah who tells us there will be a judgement. This chapter is intriguing – men had lost part of the likeness to God. This chapter builds up to the Flood.
1. THIS PERIOD IN HISTORY HAD DISTINCT FEATURES – Matthew 24:37.
This speaks of the days before the flood – what men did before the flood. The Bible speaks of ages and how they ended. A time of ignorance before Christ returns. The Dark ages were times of ignorance and moral uncertainty. In His Olivet discourse He speaks of how things will be immediately before he comes for a second time. He compares it to the time of Noah. These are Epochs in history with similar characteristics. The spiritual condition before the flood are the same as they will be before Christ’s return. The record of history has been the collapse of one civilization after another. The Bible speaks of times and seasons. If we are living in the days immediately preceding the return of Jesus Christ we shall find similar conditions to the days of Noah. It was business as usual – marriage, work and supporting family. It was a time of technological advancement. They knew so much but understood very little. Romans l – they professed to be wise but were fools. Today we have achieved so much but it is accompanied by much moral darkness and ignorance. Jesus said people in Noah’s time went about their business oblivious to what Noah was saying – of ‘crazy Noah’ who was building a boat when none was needed, apparently. He warned them of impending judgement but they went their own way. Perhaps they laughed at him, perhaps they got annoyed at him for making a ‘special claim’. None of them took any notice of what he said.
2. THIS PERIOD IN HISTORY SAW COMPROMISE – verse l
Who were the sons of God? There are several views, but the application os the same – men compromised.
a) Human rulers who were despots, striving for fame and fertility? The daughters of men were beautiful, but they were fallen women.
b) They were fallen angels in human bodies who married human women. There a lot of problems here – angels having sex with people, it sounds like Greek mythology – its not really tenable.
c) The best view is that they were the believing descendants if Seth who married the line of Cain. People who compromised. It was the intermarriage of believing men and unbelieving women. It was Satan seeking to turn a generation away from God. It was a sexually promiscuous age where men took the women they wanted. They ignored any character or spiritual traits. The rule is ‘think first and feel later’. The sexual drive is very strong and can neutralise or weaken faith. We can choose what is wrong. The Sethites compromised and chose a faith that led to sin. It contaminated a whole society. In Romans l Paul describes a fallen society, it began in Genesis 6.
3. THIS PERIOD WAS NOTED FOR CORRUPT MEN – verse 4
Who were the Nephalim? There is only one other mention in the Bible – Numbers l3 when the spies went into the land and saw these giant men, they called them Nephalim, they felt dispirited and alarmed by what they saw. The word Nephalim means ‘to fall upon’ and thus points to men of violence who had a reputation of falling upon their enemies. They were malicious and became notorious around the world. They were men who could sway multitudes to do what they wanted - see Genghis Khan, Hitler and Stalin etc, they led their people to kill millions. Al Qaeda will get their people to use dirty bombs. These people were notorious for their violence, they embodied the worst traits in men. They lived a long time – everyone did. They became very skilled in what they did. When good men live a long time it can be good, what if evil men live a long time and become skilled in evil and torture. Unchecked evil is an unimaginable horror. People lived like that in the old world. The Nephalim refined their violence over a long time. For the good of humanity such cancer needs cutting out, so God acts, he uncreates the world and washes away all vestiges of human wickedness that made life so miserable. He brings the Hitlers and Stalins of this world to a short end.
4. THIS PERIOD SAW GOD’S PATIENCE RUN OUT – verse 3.
God only permits wickedness a short reign. God will judge wickedness, he gives them a count down – one hundred and twenty years, then people face judgement. Noah was boat building for all that time. It was a warning. Noah was famous world wide and he was preaching a warning, why did they not listen? Romans l describes the breakdown of society, there have been occurrences of this before, but here it was everywhere. 2 Peter 2:5. Churchill warned politicians and society about the rise of Hitler, that he would be a danger to the world. People ignored him and did not want to listen or contemplate what he was saying. It was too late and Hitler did attack the world and cause harm. God warns us today, we are all accountable to God for what we do. We don’t like to think about this. We don’t like to listen to bad news. God is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. He postpones judgement to give us time to repent. God is calling us and is calling you, he wants you to hear good news, his son has been sent to die on the cross and to rise again so we have the hope of a better world. God’s patience will not last forever. Here a l20 years, is the time limit.
5. THIS PERIOD SAW GOD ANNOUNCE JUDGEMENT – verse 5
Grief is a mixture of love and anger at what causes pain. God’s grief is a sign of his great love. The Lord is not some unfeeling God who watches in benign disinterest while men and women destroy themselves. It grieves Him to see our rebellion and sin, and He only brings judgement after he has warned and appealed to us to turn from our sin. When He does judge, his judgement are always just. He has a right to judge man. Ezekiel 33:ll. He appeals to take account of unpalatable facts, we are accountable to Him. ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways. Why then will you die? We must put our trust in the Son of the Living God so we can live in Heaven with God. May God help us to do this.
What to do when life isn’t fair
Reading - 1 Timothy 6:1-5; Colossians 3:22-4:1; Isaiah 50:4-9;
Peter’s theme in this portion is submission. Turning from submission to civil authorities, he now focuses on the submission of slaves to their earthly masters.
If you are a parent of children old enough to talk, you have heard them complain, “But that isn’t fair!” And you respond, “Life isn’t fair!”
We are born with a strong inner sense of fairness and a strong desire to fight for our rights when we have been treated unfairly.
Although we know that life isn’t fair, we don’t like being victims of unfairness.
The important question is, “How do you respond when you’re treated unfairly?” Is it wrong to defend yourself or to stand up for your rights? That is the question.
[1] WHAT IS THE CONTEXT OF THIS TEACHING– 1 Peter 2:18 Servants,
There is more written in the N T to slaves than to any other class. The reason there were so many slaves in the early church, is that there were some sixty million, in the Roman Empire at the time Peter wrote this.
They had come from all parts of the world as a result of Rome's conquests. They came from all classes, many had been governmental figures, doctors, lawyers, and teachers and they were pressed into service for Roman citizens. In fact, all the work of Rome was done by slaves.
The Romans were masters of the world. Why should they work when they had this labour force at their command, and at such little cost?
In the early days of the Empire, slaves had no rights at all. Aristotle said, “ a slave is simply a living tool.” They were treated like animals, even branded. They had no legal rights. They could only cohabit. Their children belonged to their master. Their masters had the right of life and death over them.
However by 1A.D. the slave had most of the legal rights which were granted to the free man. Many had money at their disposal and had rights to wife and family.
Many slaves were loved and trusted members of the family. There is evidence to suggest that the slaves usually lived on the top floor of their owner’s house. The slave was not inferior to the free man of similar skills in regard to food and clothing. Statistics show that the average free man lived no better than the slave. In fact, in time of economic hardship it was the slave and not the free man who was guaranteed the necessities of life for himself and his family."
Into this stratum of society the gospel came, and the question was raised at the very outset, "How should we, as slaves, now respond to our masters? Should we throw off the yoke of slavery? This was especially poignant in the case of a slave whose master was harsh and unreasonable. In most cases, freedom was not an option and escape was difficult. Peter, Paul, and others wrote to answer this question.
[2] WHO DOES THIS MESSAGE APPLY TO 1 Peter 2:18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, At first glance Peter’s words, addressed to slaves may make us feel these words no longer apply to us since slaves and masters no longer exist today. The term Peter uses in our text refers to a broader group than just slaves. The word he uses here is a domestic, a house-slave.
However it is applicable to working and other Christians today, for Peter gives a general principle which applies to all believers. Though we may not be slaves, we may be subject to those with authority and thus face a condition similar to that of a slave. For instance, a low ranked soldier in the armed forces.
Also Our Lord and His apostles consistently taught that every Christian is Christ’s slave. Mark 10:44 “And whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all”.
A] In the NT, slavery is not commended, but neither is it condemned as a social evil the Christian master should cease to practice or the Christian slave should seek to overthrow. Christian masters are instructed not to abuse their power over their slaves Col 4:1 Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven. Col 3:22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favour, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord., and they are especially not to abuse their status as Christians in relation to their believing masters 1 Timothy 6: 1 ¶ All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God’s name and our teaching may not be slandered 2 Those who have believing masters are not to show less respect for them because they are brothers. Instead, they are to serve them even better, because those who benefit from their service are believers, and dear to them.
Human government and slavery may both be viewed as “institutions” within society, but of the two, government alone has been divinely instituted for the purpose of executing God’s rule over men. Slavery is not given such a status. Societies function very well without slaves; but they collapse without established governing authority.
B] Christian slaves would especially be targeted for persecution by their unbelieving masters. There are heathen masters like Potiphar, who prospered greatly from the service of Joseph and therefore was delighted to have him as a slave. But it was also Joseph’s righteousness which eventually led to his unjust imprisonment by Potiphar. As Peter says in chap 4, the righteousness of the Christian is threatening to the lifestyle of heathen unbelievers.
The non-Christian master also could very well feel threatened, by the conversion of one of his slaves to faith in Christ, because the church where the slave attended would make the slave an equal with his master. The result was that within the Church the social barriers were broken down. It was quite possible that the slave should be a leader of the congregation and the master a member of it.
Callistus, one of the earliest bishops of Rome, was a slave; and Perpetua, the aristocrat, and Felicitas, the slave-girl, met martyrdom hand in hand.
As a result of his new identity in Christ, the Christian slave would now have moral scruples, and his obedience to his earthly master would always be subordinate to his obedience to Christ. The master no longer had first loyalty. He no longer had the same power to intimidate, because the believing slave’s hope was on heaven.
Slavery indeed provided the opportunity for abuse, but in the sovereign plan and purpose of God that abuse gave the opportunity to shine. If Christian slaves were defiant, critics could have accused Christianity of stirring up rebellion and undermining the whole fabric of the society.
In a similar way, our unjust suffering can reveal the character of Christ in us as we suffer. The attitude of fighting for our rights communicates to the world that we’re living for the things of this world. Submitting to unfair treatment and giving up our rights communicates the truth that we’re on our way to heaven.
Our society is preoccupied with demanding its rights. It campaigns for the rights of students, women, children, homosexuals, illegal immigrants, criminals, employees, and the homeless. When people believe their rights have been denied, they often react with strikes, protests and walk outs.
If believers yield rights in a Christian manner, people will notice and maybe get an opportunity to explain what it means to live under God’s authority, with a view to pleasing Him. Whether in the light of this Christians can belong to trade unions, is a matter of conscience.
[3] WHAT IS THE EXPERIENCE OF CHRISTIANS –1 Peter 2: 19 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 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 in the sight of God.
The fact of the matter is that all humanity suffers at some time and Christians have special sufferings at times.
A] Sometimes we suffer for no apparent reason.
By that I mean that sometimes things happen to us that aren’t connected to anything we do or don’t do. Because we live in a fallen world, bad things sometimes happen to people who don’t seem to deserve it. We don’t understand and we can’t explain why things work out the way they do. One of my sisters has never had good health the other four of us have.
B] Sometimes we suffer because of mistakes we have made. Peter would say it this way: If you break the law and find yourself in jail, don’t complain. You did the crime; now do the time. Bad decisions can be very costly and often irreversible. It may have been a relationship, a job or lack of concentration on the road that has left permanent scars.
C] Sometimes we suffer unjustly at the hands of others. That’s what Peter has in mind in here. We may do right and live by the rules but get in trouble anyway. Or we may work hard and be passed over for promotion. Peter knew from experience that sometimes Christians suffer even when they have done nothing wrong. David was an example under Saul of how we are to submit to injustice. As believers we are to follow David's example of respecting those in authority.
[4] THE CHRISTIANS RESPONSE TO UNFAIR TREATMENT – 1 Peter 2: 19 be subject, For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 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 in the sight of God.
A] Suffer! Be subject not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. God has ordained various spheres of authority. Rulers in government, men in the family, elders in the church, and employers in the work place. Peter says we are to submit to those who are harsh, not just to those who are kind to us. The word harsh translates a Greek word from which we get the English word scoliosis, curvature of the spine. Some people are so morally twisted that they intentionally hurt everyone around them. Even in those cases, we are to submit. That’s not the answer we would want to hear. He makes it clear that submission is not only required under favourable conditions but in painful and unpleasant circumstances as well. Christian servants are not only to submit to “good and gentle” masters but to those who are “unreasonable.” Tit 2:9 Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them.
Unreasonable masters may, like Laban, make promises they do not keep Genesis 31:36-42. They may be unfair in their accusations, punishments, or rewards. They are those against whom we would naturally rebel apart from the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.
B] Suffer graciously! this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows How can anyone submit to unfair treatment graciously?
We endure unjust suffering for one reason only—because we are conscious or mindful of God. I am where I am right now by God’s appointment. When God wants me somewhere else, I’ll be somewhere else.
Because God is good, it must be for my good to be where I am right now. The fact that I can’t see any good in my present situation doesn’t mean it isn’t there. I don’t have to understand the big picture in order to believe there is a big picture. God’s promises cover the details of my life even when the details seem random and out of control. God sometimes allows things to happen to me that seem unfair and I won’t understand those things while I am going through them. I can endure because I believe God is right there with me every moment of every day.
H Hendricks tells the story of being on an airliner that was delayed. Passengers grew increasingly impatient. One obnoxious man kept venting his frustrations on the air hostess. But she responded graciously and courteously in spite of his abuse. After they finally got airborne and Hendricks called the woman over and said, “I want to get your name so that I can write a letter of commendation to your employer.” He was surprised when she responded, “Thank you, sir, but I don’t work for Airlines.” “I work for my Lord Jesus Christ.” She went on to explain that before each flight, she and her husband would pray together that she would be a good witness.
Do you believe God has you where you are for a purpose? If you answer yes, then you will endure suffering even though it is painful. When we forget God: We give in to despair or act hastily or retaliate. Paul remembered - 2Tim.1:12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day. His whole interests, his life, body, soul and spirit. He leaves all in God’s hands with perfect confidence.
When we endure patiently We demonstrate the power of Christ and prove our confidence in God’s justice. We are not sullen when we are mistreated, because we are conscious of God.
[5] WHO IS THE MODEL FOR CHRISTIANS IN – 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 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.
The second focus’s on the OT prophecy concerning the Lord Jesus as the Suffering Servant provides the motivation and the model for all suffering servants. The Suffering Servant is the example for Suffering Servants.
The word example is a school word, referring to how teachers lightly traced letters for students to copy. Christ is that kind of example for us. If we follow how He lived, we will form our lives correctly. Following “in His steps” means if we suffer as we follow Him and respond as He did, people will see Him in us.
Peter had walked with the Lord for three and a half years. He had seen him in every conceivable circumstance -- in the morning when he was tired from inadequate sleep, in the evening when he was weary from a hard day. He had seen him under pressure, under attack, and when people were indifferent to him. Yet he never heard from the Lord one word of complaint. He never did any of the things we would expect from a person who was unjustly treated.
A] Christ’s suffering was a pattern for us. We must suffer because we are called to suffer. This should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the Scriptures, especially the teaching of our Lord and of the apostles: Acts 14:21-22 “Through many troubles we must enter the kingdom of God”. Philippians 1:29 For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake. How should we suffer?
B] Christ’s suffering was innocent, due to His righteousness. Peter uses the words of Isaiah 53:9 to express the fact that He “committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth”. Jesus did not sin in deed or in word, either before His crucifixion or during His suffering. What wrongs would be especially tempting for a servant? The first would be disobedience; another would be disrespect, and yet another laziness. How many people justify taking things because they believe they are not being paid well enough? Christian workers should not suffer because they are late or don’t pull their weight.
C] Christ’s suffering was silent, uncomplaining. When we can do nothing else, we can shout, threaten, and even curse. Jesus remained silent. He made no effort to resist or to retaliate. The silence of our Lord is evident in the words Peter used, and the Isaiah text has even more to say on that silence: Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. He didn’t bend the facts. He was always truthful. He didn’t trade insults. He uttered no threats.
D] Christ’s suffering was a choice and not a tragic fate. Jesus frequently spoke of His suffering and death in advance of the events of Calvary. He chose to take up His cross, and so must we. A Christian boy who had an unbelieving father, asked if he could attend the mid week meeting one evening and the father reluctantly gave permission. As the boy walked home afterwards, a friend saw him and offered him a lift in his car. The father saw his son get out of the friend’s car and accused him of lying and beat him in spite of the boy’s protests of innocence. The boy quietly endured the beating and didn’t grow bitter. A few days later the father was shopping and met the pastor who knowing nothing said, “You sure have a fine son. Last week in prayer meeting, he gave a good word of testimony.” The father said, I thought he went out with his friends, his sons submission shamed him and he soon came to repentance.
E] Christ’s suffering was in faith He “kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously”. Our Lord therefore left judgment to God. He did not need to retaliate against His enemies. Jesus knew that He would be vindicated by being raised from the dead and enthroned at the right hand of the Majesty on high. He knew that His persecutors would be judged and dealt with according to their sins. God is the righteous Judge who will someday right every wrong and bring vengeance on those who resist His authority.
There is a proper place for respectful communication questioning those who mistreated us, through proper channels. Christians don’t always have to endure mistreatment in silence. Jesus in John 8 defended Himself as being sent from the Father. Paul defended his character and ministry. There is a time for moving from a bad employer. But if you move too quickly, you may miss what God is seeking to do in the difficult situation. He may want to teach you some hard lessons of being like Christ. He may want to bear witness
Peter’s theme in this portion is submission. Turning from submission to civil authorities, he now focuses on the submission of slaves to their earthly masters.
If you are a parent of children old enough to talk, you have heard them complain, “But that isn’t fair!” And you respond, “Life isn’t fair!”
We are born with a strong inner sense of fairness and a strong desire to fight for our rights when we have been treated unfairly.
Although we know that life isn’t fair, we don’t like being victims of unfairness.
The important question is, “How do you respond when you’re treated unfairly?” Is it wrong to defend yourself or to stand up for your rights? That is the question.
[1] WHAT IS THE CONTEXT OF THIS TEACHING– 1 Peter 2:18 Servants,
There is more written in the N T to slaves than to any other class. The reason there were so many slaves in the early church, is that there were some sixty million, in the Roman Empire at the time Peter wrote this.
They had come from all parts of the world as a result of Rome's conquests. They came from all classes, many had been governmental figures, doctors, lawyers, and teachers and they were pressed into service for Roman citizens. In fact, all the work of Rome was done by slaves.
The Romans were masters of the world. Why should they work when they had this labour force at their command, and at such little cost?
In the early days of the Empire, slaves had no rights at all. Aristotle said, “ a slave is simply a living tool.” They were treated like animals, even branded. They had no legal rights. They could only cohabit. Their children belonged to their master. Their masters had the right of life and death over them.
However by 1A.D. the slave had most of the legal rights which were granted to the free man. Many had money at their disposal and had rights to wife and family.
Many slaves were loved and trusted members of the family. There is evidence to suggest that the slaves usually lived on the top floor of their owner’s house. The slave was not inferior to the free man of similar skills in regard to food and clothing. Statistics show that the average free man lived no better than the slave. In fact, in time of economic hardship it was the slave and not the free man who was guaranteed the necessities of life for himself and his family."
Into this stratum of society the gospel came, and the question was raised at the very outset, "How should we, as slaves, now respond to our masters? Should we throw off the yoke of slavery? This was especially poignant in the case of a slave whose master was harsh and unreasonable. In most cases, freedom was not an option and escape was difficult. Peter, Paul, and others wrote to answer this question.
[2] WHO DOES THIS MESSAGE APPLY TO 1 Peter 2:18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, At first glance Peter’s words, addressed to slaves may make us feel these words no longer apply to us since slaves and masters no longer exist today. The term Peter uses in our text refers to a broader group than just slaves. The word he uses here is a domestic, a house-slave.
However it is applicable to working and other Christians today, for Peter gives a general principle which applies to all believers. Though we may not be slaves, we may be subject to those with authority and thus face a condition similar to that of a slave. For instance, a low ranked soldier in the armed forces.
Also Our Lord and His apostles consistently taught that every Christian is Christ’s slave. Mark 10:44 “And whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all”.
A] In the NT, slavery is not commended, but neither is it condemned as a social evil the Christian master should cease to practice or the Christian slave should seek to overthrow. Christian masters are instructed not to abuse their power over their slaves Col 4:1 Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven. Col 3:22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favour, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord., and they are especially not to abuse their status as Christians in relation to their believing masters 1 Timothy 6: 1 ¶ All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God’s name and our teaching may not be slandered 2 Those who have believing masters are not to show less respect for them because they are brothers. Instead, they are to serve them even better, because those who benefit from their service are believers, and dear to them.
Human government and slavery may both be viewed as “institutions” within society, but of the two, government alone has been divinely instituted for the purpose of executing God’s rule over men. Slavery is not given such a status. Societies function very well without slaves; but they collapse without established governing authority.
B] Christian slaves would especially be targeted for persecution by their unbelieving masters. There are heathen masters like Potiphar, who prospered greatly from the service of Joseph and therefore was delighted to have him as a slave. But it was also Joseph’s righteousness which eventually led to his unjust imprisonment by Potiphar. As Peter says in chap 4, the righteousness of the Christian is threatening to the lifestyle of heathen unbelievers.
The non-Christian master also could very well feel threatened, by the conversion of one of his slaves to faith in Christ, because the church where the slave attended would make the slave an equal with his master. The result was that within the Church the social barriers were broken down. It was quite possible that the slave should be a leader of the congregation and the master a member of it.
Callistus, one of the earliest bishops of Rome, was a slave; and Perpetua, the aristocrat, and Felicitas, the slave-girl, met martyrdom hand in hand.
As a result of his new identity in Christ, the Christian slave would now have moral scruples, and his obedience to his earthly master would always be subordinate to his obedience to Christ. The master no longer had first loyalty. He no longer had the same power to intimidate, because the believing slave’s hope was on heaven.
Slavery indeed provided the opportunity for abuse, but in the sovereign plan and purpose of God that abuse gave the opportunity to shine. If Christian slaves were defiant, critics could have accused Christianity of stirring up rebellion and undermining the whole fabric of the society.
In a similar way, our unjust suffering can reveal the character of Christ in us as we suffer. The attitude of fighting for our rights communicates to the world that we’re living for the things of this world. Submitting to unfair treatment and giving up our rights communicates the truth that we’re on our way to heaven.
Our society is preoccupied with demanding its rights. It campaigns for the rights of students, women, children, homosexuals, illegal immigrants, criminals, employees, and the homeless. When people believe their rights have been denied, they often react with strikes, protests and walk outs.
If believers yield rights in a Christian manner, people will notice and maybe get an opportunity to explain what it means to live under God’s authority, with a view to pleasing Him. Whether in the light of this Christians can belong to trade unions, is a matter of conscience.
[3] WHAT IS THE EXPERIENCE OF CHRISTIANS –1 Peter 2: 19 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 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 in the sight of God.
The fact of the matter is that all humanity suffers at some time and Christians have special sufferings at times.
A] Sometimes we suffer for no apparent reason.
By that I mean that sometimes things happen to us that aren’t connected to anything we do or don’t do. Because we live in a fallen world, bad things sometimes happen to people who don’t seem to deserve it. We don’t understand and we can’t explain why things work out the way they do. One of my sisters has never had good health the other four of us have.
B] Sometimes we suffer because of mistakes we have made. Peter would say it this way: If you break the law and find yourself in jail, don’t complain. You did the crime; now do the time. Bad decisions can be very costly and often irreversible. It may have been a relationship, a job or lack of concentration on the road that has left permanent scars.
C] Sometimes we suffer unjustly at the hands of others. That’s what Peter has in mind in here. We may do right and live by the rules but get in trouble anyway. Or we may work hard and be passed over for promotion. Peter knew from experience that sometimes Christians suffer even when they have done nothing wrong. David was an example under Saul of how we are to submit to injustice. As believers we are to follow David's example of respecting those in authority.
[4] THE CHRISTIANS RESPONSE TO UNFAIR TREATMENT – 1 Peter 2: 19 be subject, For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 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 in the sight of God.
A] Suffer! Be subject not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. God has ordained various spheres of authority. Rulers in government, men in the family, elders in the church, and employers in the work place. Peter says we are to submit to those who are harsh, not just to those who are kind to us. The word harsh translates a Greek word from which we get the English word scoliosis, curvature of the spine. Some people are so morally twisted that they intentionally hurt everyone around them. Even in those cases, we are to submit. That’s not the answer we would want to hear. He makes it clear that submission is not only required under favourable conditions but in painful and unpleasant circumstances as well. Christian servants are not only to submit to “good and gentle” masters but to those who are “unreasonable.” Tit 2:9 Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them.
Unreasonable masters may, like Laban, make promises they do not keep Genesis 31:36-42. They may be unfair in their accusations, punishments, or rewards. They are those against whom we would naturally rebel apart from the enabling power of the Holy Spirit.
B] Suffer graciously! this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows How can anyone submit to unfair treatment graciously?
We endure unjust suffering for one reason only—because we are conscious or mindful of God. I am where I am right now by God’s appointment. When God wants me somewhere else, I’ll be somewhere else.
Because God is good, it must be for my good to be where I am right now. The fact that I can’t see any good in my present situation doesn’t mean it isn’t there. I don’t have to understand the big picture in order to believe there is a big picture. God’s promises cover the details of my life even when the details seem random and out of control. God sometimes allows things to happen to me that seem unfair and I won’t understand those things while I am going through them. I can endure because I believe God is right there with me every moment of every day.
H Hendricks tells the story of being on an airliner that was delayed. Passengers grew increasingly impatient. One obnoxious man kept venting his frustrations on the air hostess. But she responded graciously and courteously in spite of his abuse. After they finally got airborne and Hendricks called the woman over and said, “I want to get your name so that I can write a letter of commendation to your employer.” He was surprised when she responded, “Thank you, sir, but I don’t work for Airlines.” “I work for my Lord Jesus Christ.” She went on to explain that before each flight, she and her husband would pray together that she would be a good witness.
Do you believe God has you where you are for a purpose? If you answer yes, then you will endure suffering even though it is painful. When we forget God: We give in to despair or act hastily or retaliate. Paul remembered - 2Tim.1:12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day. His whole interests, his life, body, soul and spirit. He leaves all in God’s hands with perfect confidence.
When we endure patiently We demonstrate the power of Christ and prove our confidence in God’s justice. We are not sullen when we are mistreated, because we are conscious of God.
[5] WHO IS THE MODEL FOR CHRISTIANS IN – 21 For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. 22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 23 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.
The second focus’s on the OT prophecy concerning the Lord Jesus as the Suffering Servant provides the motivation and the model for all suffering servants. The Suffering Servant is the example for Suffering Servants.
The word example is a school word, referring to how teachers lightly traced letters for students to copy. Christ is that kind of example for us. If we follow how He lived, we will form our lives correctly. Following “in His steps” means if we suffer as we follow Him and respond as He did, people will see Him in us.
Peter had walked with the Lord for three and a half years. He had seen him in every conceivable circumstance -- in the morning when he was tired from inadequate sleep, in the evening when he was weary from a hard day. He had seen him under pressure, under attack, and when people were indifferent to him. Yet he never heard from the Lord one word of complaint. He never did any of the things we would expect from a person who was unjustly treated.
A] Christ’s suffering was a pattern for us. We must suffer because we are called to suffer. This should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the Scriptures, especially the teaching of our Lord and of the apostles: Acts 14:21-22 “Through many troubles we must enter the kingdom of God”. Philippians 1:29 For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake. How should we suffer?
B] Christ’s suffering was innocent, due to His righteousness. Peter uses the words of Isaiah 53:9 to express the fact that He “committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth”. Jesus did not sin in deed or in word, either before His crucifixion or during His suffering. What wrongs would be especially tempting for a servant? The first would be disobedience; another would be disrespect, and yet another laziness. How many people justify taking things because they believe they are not being paid well enough? Christian workers should not suffer because they are late or don’t pull their weight.
C] Christ’s suffering was silent, uncomplaining. When we can do nothing else, we can shout, threaten, and even curse. Jesus remained silent. He made no effort to resist or to retaliate. The silence of our Lord is evident in the words Peter used, and the Isaiah text has even more to say on that silence: Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. He didn’t bend the facts. He was always truthful. He didn’t trade insults. He uttered no threats.
D] Christ’s suffering was a choice and not a tragic fate. Jesus frequently spoke of His suffering and death in advance of the events of Calvary. He chose to take up His cross, and so must we. A Christian boy who had an unbelieving father, asked if he could attend the mid week meeting one evening and the father reluctantly gave permission. As the boy walked home afterwards, a friend saw him and offered him a lift in his car. The father saw his son get out of the friend’s car and accused him of lying and beat him in spite of the boy’s protests of innocence. The boy quietly endured the beating and didn’t grow bitter. A few days later the father was shopping and met the pastor who knowing nothing said, “You sure have a fine son. Last week in prayer meeting, he gave a good word of testimony.” The father said, I thought he went out with his friends, his sons submission shamed him and he soon came to repentance.
E] Christ’s suffering was in faith He “kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously”. Our Lord therefore left judgment to God. He did not need to retaliate against His enemies. Jesus knew that He would be vindicated by being raised from the dead and enthroned at the right hand of the Majesty on high. He knew that His persecutors would be judged and dealt with according to their sins. God is the righteous Judge who will someday right every wrong and bring vengeance on those who resist His authority.
There is a proper place for respectful communication questioning those who mistreated us, through proper channels. Christians don’t always have to endure mistreatment in silence. Jesus in John 8 defended Himself as being sent from the Father. Paul defended his character and ministry. There is a time for moving from a bad employer. But if you move too quickly, you may miss what God is seeking to do in the difficult situation. He may want to teach you some hard lessons of being like Christ. He may want to bear witness
What do Genealogies tells Us.
Reading - Genesis 5
Augustine, in The City of God, says the history of the human race is the history of two groups of people, each having a distinct origin, development, characteristic, and destiny. He wrote that these are “two societies … formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, or the heavenly by the love of God. The earthly society has as its highest expression the city cultures. The other is the church, composed of God’s elect. The former is destined to pass away. The latter is blessed by God and is to endure forever.
Cain’s line is credited with what might be called ‘secular progress’ and achievements. The faithless line is traceable in the world’s cities and cultures.
Seth’s line, makes no mention of any great contributions or achievements. All we learn is that at least two of them were men of faith. These men grasped the fact that sin was the root of their troubles and looked forward to redemption that God was to provide through their offspring.
The line of Seth reminds man of his mortality. Through Enoch, it also shows the hope of eternal life for those who walk with God.
Moses wrote these words to the Israelites who were poised to enter Canaan. This chapter reminded them that they needed to follow the line of Seth, not the line of Cain. Moses is saying to the people, “As you go into a culture that will have many temptations, be careful! Remember that you will die, and that you need to live in this fallen world by calling upon the name of the Lord, by walking with God.” We, too, live in a world that tempts us to forget the shortness of life and join its progress without God.
This is the story of man in his development in a very unique era of human history, the pre-flood or "antediluvian society." Very few artefacts of the pre-flood era have been found. Therefore, essentially, this is the only history we have of the earth in these days.
[1] GENEALOGIES DO MATTER 1 ¶ This is the written account of Adam’s line.
The genealogies have never been the best read portions of the Word of God. Ray Stedman tells the story of an old Scots minister who was reading from the first chapter of Matthew’s gospel. He started reading, ‘Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac beget Jacob, and Jacob begat Judah,’ and he looked on ahead and saw the list to follow and said, ‘and they kept on begetting one another all the way down this page and halfway into the next.’
If we are honest, that is what most of us do with the genealogies of the Bible—we skip them. Leupold, in his commentary on Genesis says to preachers: “Not every man would venture to use this chapter as a text.”
To most the genealogies are the most boring part of the Bible. The genealogies have unpronounceable names and we don’t see what they say to us today.
The genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 are not at all unique in the ancient times. The Egyptians had king lists and so did the Sumerians. These ancient Near Eastern genealogies are very instructive in confirming the biblical records.
A ] They confirm and establish historical facts. This is first of all an accurate historical account of the generations from Adam to Noah. We have a genealogy of ten men starting with Adam and ending with Noah. The ten generations cover a period of 1,656 years. In 1 Chronicles 1, we have a repeat of this genealogy. It opens with these words: "Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth." There is no variation; Luke 3 likewise. Jude 14 confirms Enoch is the seventh name after Adam.
Now this tells us that Adam overlapped Methuselah for 200 years and Methuselah actually overlapped Noah for 600 years. One man bridges between Adam to Noah. Then Noah overlapped Shem for 400 years and Abraham died before Shem! So Shem could have told Abraham firsthand about the flood. It is very likely that Shem was still alive during the lifetime of Jacob as well. Thus four people span Adam to Abraham - span creation to Abraham. It's really important because God was passing down this divine truth. For Abraham the account of the creation would be like referring to accounts by his great grandfather. Accurate truth was handed down to the world for all time.
God wants us to know that he is in control not just the highlights of biblical history, but also of everything else in between.
B] They confirm and establish identity. Genealogical research is big business today, people spend time and money tracing their family tree back as far as possible. A genealogy at can be all-important. When a will is being read, it matters a great deal whether or not your name is mentioned. A genealogy isn’t boring if you know someone on the list or if your name is on the list.
The primary purpose is to establish one’s family identity, one’s roots. This is what the great scholar, B. B. Warfield, wrote: The point established by the table is that this is the line of descent through which one traces back to or down to the other.
So genealogies shouldn’t be dismissed. It was through the line of Seth that God raised up Noah, and through him came Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and, eventually, Jesus Christ. The believing line runs from here to the us the church.
C] They confirm and establish a persons faith. This chapter is a record of ten men who lived by faith in a time of increasing unbelief and widespread secularism. When we read these names we are reading more than a dusty list of ancient names. These ten men stand before us as giants of the faith, men who refused to follow the prevailing cultural trends of their day. In a world rushing headlong toward judgment, they followed the way of the Lord.
When the writer of Hebrews 11 wanted to list the heroes of faith, he took two names from this list—Enoch and Noah.
There is also room for much encouragement from this list. In contrast to Cain these men were faithful to God. God was faithful to remember them and to record their names in his book. There are always some who serve God. No matter how many bow the knee to Baal, God never leaves himself without a witness. Even though believers may be in a minority at a given time and place, the Lord is still there watching over his people and protecting them in times of crisis. God remembers the faithful and he rewards them in his own time and in his own way.
I also find great encouragement in this list regarding the possibility of building believing families. From these men come tribes that filled the ancient Middle East, establishing towns and cities of their own, taking their faith in God with them. Though we may sometimes despair because of the sin we see around us, Genesis 5 is proof positive that with God’s help it can be done.
[2] GENEALOGIES REMIND US THAT WE ARE ALL MORTAL
A] This chapter reminds us about the long lives, most around 900 years. Incredible. Is this true? The answer is yes. There is nothing to suggest that these numbers are not literal. Josephus says 12 ancient historians say people lived a 1,000 years once. If you take this genealogy with the one in Genesis 11, you can see that before the flood, the life spans were much longer. It does seem that conditions on the earth were radically different before the flood. A cloud canopy could have protected the early human race from the aging process known to be accelerated by the ultraviolet rays of the sun.
Animals don’t keep genealogies but we do have many of their fossils. Many of these are Giant Fossils suggesting that not only did men live longer but animals also lived longer and grew bigger because of the climate. Remains of mammoths, dinosaurs, reptiles, amphibians, insects, trees were all much bigger than those existing today.
So God determined that the early human race lived to be 900 to populate the earth rapidly and to advance civilization.
Perhaps also the decaying effects of sin took a few generations to produce negative results in the human body.
B] This chapter reminds us about Adam and his descendants. 3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.
The list begins with Adam since he is the father of the human race. Adam had a son in his own likeness and in his own image. We would expect that.
We learned a few weeks back that death entered the human race through Adam’s disobedience. “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned” Rom. 5:12. “For the wages of sin is death ...” Rom. 6:23. When he fell, we fell because he was the federal head of the human race. So now he is a sinner by choice and by nature and that nature is now passed along to us his descendants.
Genesis tells us that we are all made in God’s image and we are all born with a nature that leads us to rebel against God.
The entire race is under a death sentence because of sin. When Adam and Eve sinned, instantly they died spiritually--they were separated from God. But also they began to die physically.
With them it was a longer process than it is with us, but it was set in motion the minute they sinned. Seth, born in Adam’s likeness, inherited a sin nature which he passed on to his descendants. Adam’s sin brought death to all.
C] This chapter has the repeated phrase “And he died.” The phrase, “and he died” sounds like a funeral bell, tolling eight times throughout the chapter.. Only Enoch did not die. And we are told about Noah’s death later in Genesis. There is a “drumbeat of death” in this chapter that echoes across the generations. Each man of faith lived and then he died. Death has now become a regular fact of human existence. Even though they lived long lives, they died.
We don’t like to think about death, especially our own! It used to be more common. In the Middle Ages it was common for scholars and other men of prominence to keep a skull on their desk to remind them that they, like the victim, must die. The Latin name for such a skull was a memento mori, “a reminder of death”. Jerome - It sounds gruesome to us. But Genesis 5 is God’s memento mori, His reminder to us that all must die however long we live.
Death reigned in the earliest generations of world history. And death still reigns today. Just open any newspaper and look at the obituary section. Every day a brand-new list, names never repeated.
If there is one thing about which we may be perfectly certain it is this: Unless the Lord returns in your lifetime, you are going to die someday.
We say nothing is as certain as death and taxes, but death is far more certain. Death is so certain that there is an entire business built about the expectation of death called the life insurance industry. Life insurance is based on one great theological truth—Death reigns.
When you die, the coroner will fill out a death certificate for you. There’s a space on that certificate that says “Cause of Death.” It may say sickness, cancer, an accident, or old age. Those are just symptoms of the great cause of death: Sin.
A popular idea promoted in our day is that death is a natural part of life. We are born, go through life, and then die. People are just like animals and plants, going through the life cycle. But death is not natural, it is more normal to fear that to try and pretend it holds no fears. Death is a horrible reminder that we have wronged the holy God and that someday we all must stand before Him. We can try to block it out of our minds, we can joke about it, but it’s still going to come.
The only way to live wisely is to keep in constant focus that whether I have a few hours, or a few years, it is certain that I am going to die and stand before a holy God. I’d better be ready to meet Him!
Cain isn’t mentioned at all because Genesis 5 traces the line of faith, which is what matters to the Lord. All that secular wealth and achievement is valueless as far as eternity is concerned.
Years ago a London business named Henry Goodear, went to church one Sunday, just to please his niece. The pastor’s read Genesis 5, she wondered why the pastor had to base his message on that passage on the day her uncle with her. The next day, Goodear could not concentrate on his work. That night he searched for a family Bible and read over those words, “and he died, ... and he died.” He thought, “Now I’m living, but someday I too must die, and then where will I spend eternity?” That very night he asked the Lord Jesus to forgive him and adopt him…….and you?
[3] GENEALOGIES RECORD THE LIVES OF THOSE WHO ARE WORTH REMEMBERING V24: “Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.”
For Enoch to walk with God, it meant that every day He set his heart to live remembering the unseen God, was at his side. And so he did, day after day, week after week, year after year. Because his heart was set to follow the Lord, he walked with him as a habit of life.
A] Enoch’s walk with God Enoch stood out in his day. He lived at the same time as the boastful sensual Lamech. Jude 14-15 records what Enoch prophesied: v 14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 ¶ to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him."
He was the first preacher who ever confronted liars and deceivers and false teachers. He warned the people of God’s coming judgment. That probably didn’t make him the most popular man of his day! People like to hear upbeat messages on how they can be happy. They don’t like to be faced with the consequences of their sinful ways. But the closer a man walks with God, the more he realizes how bad his own heart is, and how evil his own generation is. As he grows in holiness, he stands out as distinct from the crowd.
If he walked with God in such moral darkness, we can too.
B] Enoch’s walk with God had a starting point. "Enoch walked with God after the birth of Methuselah three hundred years." The starting place of a walk with God is to come to Him in faith. It means that a relationship with God is established. It means a coming together, it means to be reconciled to God through faith. Enoch did not always walk with God. Apparently the first 65 years of his life was like all those around him. What started him walking with God then? Apparently it coincided with the birth of a son, a boy whom he named Methuselah. Perhaps he was like many men who don’t get serious until they become parents. The responsibility makes them more thoughtful, more serious, more sober in the outlook on life. Perhaps that’s what happened to Enoch. He became serious and sought God.
C] Enoch’s walk with God ended triumphantly The phrase “God took him away” means that instead of dying, he was lifted off the earth while he was alive and was taken directly into God’s presence. He did not die, no one killed him, and he did not waste away from some dread disease. He took a walk with God one day and never came back. He just walked right into heaven. Why does God do this? Because the Lord is showing us that there is victory over death. He is an illustration that if you walk with God, if you please God, you'll escape death. You'll conquer death.
He simply walked with God so long that he walked all the way from earth to heaven. Consider the testimony given about him in Hebrews 11:5, “By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.” One day God said, “Come home with me?”
The world takes note of those who achieve in science or business or entertainment. It makes celebrities of dubious characters. But God takes note of the person who walks with Him by faith. Enoch believed God; God rewarded him accordingly.
Enoch walked beyond space and time into eternity. God took him off the earth and allowed him to enter heaven without experiencing death. It is the picture of the second coming and a reminder that death will not have the last word. B. We gain the hope of eternal life.
It’s interesting that the best man in this genealogy has by far the shortest life--365 years. Walking with God is not a guarantee of a long life on earth; it is a guarantee of eternal life with God.
Enoch is also a type of those who will be alive at the Lord’s coming and who will be taken directly to heaven without dying. This is the blessed hope of every believer, to be caught up “in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord” 1 Thess. 4:13-17.
Those who do not walk with God do not have the hope of eternal life, but only the fear of judgment. Enoch prophesied of God’s coming judgment, and he did it through more than just his preaching: He named his son Methuselah. It means, "His death shall bring it," or "When he dies, it will come." What will come? The Flood! Sure enough Methuselah died the same year that God sent the flood.
Enoch, looked beyond the culture, the comforts, and the technical marvels of his own day, to the fact there must come an inevitable judgment on human life. He saw the certainty of destruction to a world living only to please itself.
If you will walk with God, you can come to the end of life with full assurance that the best is yet to come. Is your name is in the book of life. Death did come to the godly seed of Seth. But Enoch is a type of all those who truly walk with God. After death they will be ushered into the eternal presence of God, in whose fellowship they will dwell forever.
Augustine, in The City of God, says the history of the human race is the history of two groups of people, each having a distinct origin, development, characteristic, and destiny. He wrote that these are “two societies … formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, or the heavenly by the love of God. The earthly society has as its highest expression the city cultures. The other is the church, composed of God’s elect. The former is destined to pass away. The latter is blessed by God and is to endure forever.
Cain’s line is credited with what might be called ‘secular progress’ and achievements. The faithless line is traceable in the world’s cities and cultures.
Seth’s line, makes no mention of any great contributions or achievements. All we learn is that at least two of them were men of faith. These men grasped the fact that sin was the root of their troubles and looked forward to redemption that God was to provide through their offspring.
The line of Seth reminds man of his mortality. Through Enoch, it also shows the hope of eternal life for those who walk with God.
Moses wrote these words to the Israelites who were poised to enter Canaan. This chapter reminded them that they needed to follow the line of Seth, not the line of Cain. Moses is saying to the people, “As you go into a culture that will have many temptations, be careful! Remember that you will die, and that you need to live in this fallen world by calling upon the name of the Lord, by walking with God.” We, too, live in a world that tempts us to forget the shortness of life and join its progress without God.
This is the story of man in his development in a very unique era of human history, the pre-flood or "antediluvian society." Very few artefacts of the pre-flood era have been found. Therefore, essentially, this is the only history we have of the earth in these days.
[1] GENEALOGIES DO MATTER 1 ¶ This is the written account of Adam’s line.
The genealogies have never been the best read portions of the Word of God. Ray Stedman tells the story of an old Scots minister who was reading from the first chapter of Matthew’s gospel. He started reading, ‘Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac beget Jacob, and Jacob begat Judah,’ and he looked on ahead and saw the list to follow and said, ‘and they kept on begetting one another all the way down this page and halfway into the next.’
If we are honest, that is what most of us do with the genealogies of the Bible—we skip them. Leupold, in his commentary on Genesis says to preachers: “Not every man would venture to use this chapter as a text.”
To most the genealogies are the most boring part of the Bible. The genealogies have unpronounceable names and we don’t see what they say to us today.
The genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 are not at all unique in the ancient times. The Egyptians had king lists and so did the Sumerians. These ancient Near Eastern genealogies are very instructive in confirming the biblical records.
A ] They confirm and establish historical facts. This is first of all an accurate historical account of the generations from Adam to Noah. We have a genealogy of ten men starting with Adam and ending with Noah. The ten generations cover a period of 1,656 years. In 1 Chronicles 1, we have a repeat of this genealogy. It opens with these words: "Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth." There is no variation; Luke 3 likewise. Jude 14 confirms Enoch is the seventh name after Adam.
Now this tells us that Adam overlapped Methuselah for 200 years and Methuselah actually overlapped Noah for 600 years. One man bridges between Adam to Noah. Then Noah overlapped Shem for 400 years and Abraham died before Shem! So Shem could have told Abraham firsthand about the flood. It is very likely that Shem was still alive during the lifetime of Jacob as well. Thus four people span Adam to Abraham - span creation to Abraham. It's really important because God was passing down this divine truth. For Abraham the account of the creation would be like referring to accounts by his great grandfather. Accurate truth was handed down to the world for all time.
God wants us to know that he is in control not just the highlights of biblical history, but also of everything else in between.
B] They confirm and establish identity. Genealogical research is big business today, people spend time and money tracing their family tree back as far as possible. A genealogy at can be all-important. When a will is being read, it matters a great deal whether or not your name is mentioned. A genealogy isn’t boring if you know someone on the list or if your name is on the list.
The primary purpose is to establish one’s family identity, one’s roots. This is what the great scholar, B. B. Warfield, wrote: The point established by the table is that this is the line of descent through which one traces back to or down to the other.
So genealogies shouldn’t be dismissed. It was through the line of Seth that God raised up Noah, and through him came Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and, eventually, Jesus Christ. The believing line runs from here to the us the church.
C] They confirm and establish a persons faith. This chapter is a record of ten men who lived by faith in a time of increasing unbelief and widespread secularism. When we read these names we are reading more than a dusty list of ancient names. These ten men stand before us as giants of the faith, men who refused to follow the prevailing cultural trends of their day. In a world rushing headlong toward judgment, they followed the way of the Lord.
When the writer of Hebrews 11 wanted to list the heroes of faith, he took two names from this list—Enoch and Noah.
There is also room for much encouragement from this list. In contrast to Cain these men were faithful to God. God was faithful to remember them and to record their names in his book. There are always some who serve God. No matter how many bow the knee to Baal, God never leaves himself without a witness. Even though believers may be in a minority at a given time and place, the Lord is still there watching over his people and protecting them in times of crisis. God remembers the faithful and he rewards them in his own time and in his own way.
I also find great encouragement in this list regarding the possibility of building believing families. From these men come tribes that filled the ancient Middle East, establishing towns and cities of their own, taking their faith in God with them. Though we may sometimes despair because of the sin we see around us, Genesis 5 is proof positive that with God’s help it can be done.
[2] GENEALOGIES REMIND US THAT WE ARE ALL MORTAL
A] This chapter reminds us about the long lives, most around 900 years. Incredible. Is this true? The answer is yes. There is nothing to suggest that these numbers are not literal. Josephus says 12 ancient historians say people lived a 1,000 years once. If you take this genealogy with the one in Genesis 11, you can see that before the flood, the life spans were much longer. It does seem that conditions on the earth were radically different before the flood. A cloud canopy could have protected the early human race from the aging process known to be accelerated by the ultraviolet rays of the sun.
Animals don’t keep genealogies but we do have many of their fossils. Many of these are Giant Fossils suggesting that not only did men live longer but animals also lived longer and grew bigger because of the climate. Remains of mammoths, dinosaurs, reptiles, amphibians, insects, trees were all much bigger than those existing today.
So God determined that the early human race lived to be 900 to populate the earth rapidly and to advance civilization.
Perhaps also the decaying effects of sin took a few generations to produce negative results in the human body.
B] This chapter reminds us about Adam and his descendants. 3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.
The list begins with Adam since he is the father of the human race. Adam had a son in his own likeness and in his own image. We would expect that.
We learned a few weeks back that death entered the human race through Adam’s disobedience. “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned” Rom. 5:12. “For the wages of sin is death ...” Rom. 6:23. When he fell, we fell because he was the federal head of the human race. So now he is a sinner by choice and by nature and that nature is now passed along to us his descendants.
Genesis tells us that we are all made in God’s image and we are all born with a nature that leads us to rebel against God.
The entire race is under a death sentence because of sin. When Adam and Eve sinned, instantly they died spiritually--they were separated from God. But also they began to die physically.
With them it was a longer process than it is with us, but it was set in motion the minute they sinned. Seth, born in Adam’s likeness, inherited a sin nature which he passed on to his descendants. Adam’s sin brought death to all.
C] This chapter has the repeated phrase “And he died.” The phrase, “and he died” sounds like a funeral bell, tolling eight times throughout the chapter.. Only Enoch did not die. And we are told about Noah’s death later in Genesis. There is a “drumbeat of death” in this chapter that echoes across the generations. Each man of faith lived and then he died. Death has now become a regular fact of human existence. Even though they lived long lives, they died.
We don’t like to think about death, especially our own! It used to be more common. In the Middle Ages it was common for scholars and other men of prominence to keep a skull on their desk to remind them that they, like the victim, must die. The Latin name for such a skull was a memento mori, “a reminder of death”. Jerome - It sounds gruesome to us. But Genesis 5 is God’s memento mori, His reminder to us that all must die however long we live.
Death reigned in the earliest generations of world history. And death still reigns today. Just open any newspaper and look at the obituary section. Every day a brand-new list, names never repeated.
If there is one thing about which we may be perfectly certain it is this: Unless the Lord returns in your lifetime, you are going to die someday.
We say nothing is as certain as death and taxes, but death is far more certain. Death is so certain that there is an entire business built about the expectation of death called the life insurance industry. Life insurance is based on one great theological truth—Death reigns.
When you die, the coroner will fill out a death certificate for you. There’s a space on that certificate that says “Cause of Death.” It may say sickness, cancer, an accident, or old age. Those are just symptoms of the great cause of death: Sin.
A popular idea promoted in our day is that death is a natural part of life. We are born, go through life, and then die. People are just like animals and plants, going through the life cycle. But death is not natural, it is more normal to fear that to try and pretend it holds no fears. Death is a horrible reminder that we have wronged the holy God and that someday we all must stand before Him. We can try to block it out of our minds, we can joke about it, but it’s still going to come.
The only way to live wisely is to keep in constant focus that whether I have a few hours, or a few years, it is certain that I am going to die and stand before a holy God. I’d better be ready to meet Him!
Cain isn’t mentioned at all because Genesis 5 traces the line of faith, which is what matters to the Lord. All that secular wealth and achievement is valueless as far as eternity is concerned.
Years ago a London business named Henry Goodear, went to church one Sunday, just to please his niece. The pastor’s read Genesis 5, she wondered why the pastor had to base his message on that passage on the day her uncle with her. The next day, Goodear could not concentrate on his work. That night he searched for a family Bible and read over those words, “and he died, ... and he died.” He thought, “Now I’m living, but someday I too must die, and then where will I spend eternity?” That very night he asked the Lord Jesus to forgive him and adopt him…….and you?
[3] GENEALOGIES RECORD THE LIVES OF THOSE WHO ARE WORTH REMEMBERING V24: “Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.”
For Enoch to walk with God, it meant that every day He set his heart to live remembering the unseen God, was at his side. And so he did, day after day, week after week, year after year. Because his heart was set to follow the Lord, he walked with him as a habit of life.
A] Enoch’s walk with God Enoch stood out in his day. He lived at the same time as the boastful sensual Lamech. Jude 14-15 records what Enoch prophesied: v 14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men: "See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 ¶ to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way, and of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against him."
He was the first preacher who ever confronted liars and deceivers and false teachers. He warned the people of God’s coming judgment. That probably didn’t make him the most popular man of his day! People like to hear upbeat messages on how they can be happy. They don’t like to be faced with the consequences of their sinful ways. But the closer a man walks with God, the more he realizes how bad his own heart is, and how evil his own generation is. As he grows in holiness, he stands out as distinct from the crowd.
If he walked with God in such moral darkness, we can too.
B] Enoch’s walk with God had a starting point. "Enoch walked with God after the birth of Methuselah three hundred years." The starting place of a walk with God is to come to Him in faith. It means that a relationship with God is established. It means a coming together, it means to be reconciled to God through faith. Enoch did not always walk with God. Apparently the first 65 years of his life was like all those around him. What started him walking with God then? Apparently it coincided with the birth of a son, a boy whom he named Methuselah. Perhaps he was like many men who don’t get serious until they become parents. The responsibility makes them more thoughtful, more serious, more sober in the outlook on life. Perhaps that’s what happened to Enoch. He became serious and sought God.
C] Enoch’s walk with God ended triumphantly The phrase “God took him away” means that instead of dying, he was lifted off the earth while he was alive and was taken directly into God’s presence. He did not die, no one killed him, and he did not waste away from some dread disease. He took a walk with God one day and never came back. He just walked right into heaven. Why does God do this? Because the Lord is showing us that there is victory over death. He is an illustration that if you walk with God, if you please God, you'll escape death. You'll conquer death.
He simply walked with God so long that he walked all the way from earth to heaven. Consider the testimony given about him in Hebrews 11:5, “By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.” One day God said, “Come home with me?”
The world takes note of those who achieve in science or business or entertainment. It makes celebrities of dubious characters. But God takes note of the person who walks with Him by faith. Enoch believed God; God rewarded him accordingly.
Enoch walked beyond space and time into eternity. God took him off the earth and allowed him to enter heaven without experiencing death. It is the picture of the second coming and a reminder that death will not have the last word. B. We gain the hope of eternal life.
It’s interesting that the best man in this genealogy has by far the shortest life--365 years. Walking with God is not a guarantee of a long life on earth; it is a guarantee of eternal life with God.
Enoch is also a type of those who will be alive at the Lord’s coming and who will be taken directly to heaven without dying. This is the blessed hope of every believer, to be caught up “in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord” 1 Thess. 4:13-17.
Those who do not walk with God do not have the hope of eternal life, but only the fear of judgment. Enoch prophesied of God’s coming judgment, and he did it through more than just his preaching: He named his son Methuselah. It means, "His death shall bring it," or "When he dies, it will come." What will come? The Flood! Sure enough Methuselah died the same year that God sent the flood.
Enoch, looked beyond the culture, the comforts, and the technical marvels of his own day, to the fact there must come an inevitable judgment on human life. He saw the certainty of destruction to a world living only to please itself.
If you will walk with God, you can come to the end of life with full assurance that the best is yet to come. Is your name is in the book of life. Death did come to the godly seed of Seth. But Enoch is a type of all those who truly walk with God. After death they will be ushered into the eternal presence of God, in whose fellowship they will dwell forever.
Submission to Civil Authority
Reading – Romans 13:1-10; 1 Tim.2:1-8
This text is God’s answer to the anti-authority spirit of this age. These verses give us a framework for understanding how Christians should relate to the various authority structures. Wherever you find a human institution, there you will find people in authority and people under authority.
Those to whom Peter wrote lived with a government and society that was not favourable toward the Christian faith. It was not until the fourth century, under Constantine, that Christianity was afforded official legitimacy.
Peter has just stated the general principle that Christians are not permanent residents here, but are pilgrims journeying toward heaven. It would have been easy for his readers to conclude that we therefore have no civic responsibility here on earth. Perhaps they would have concluded that they could disobey human government, since they were citizens of heaven, not of this earth.
So Peter anticipates this wrong conclusion by showing how Christian citizens live.
[I] THE PRINCIPLE—SUBMIT TO ALL HUMAN AUTHORITY13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him.
Submission means obedience. It is a military term that means to “get in line.” Even if we don’t like it, we are to “get in line” anyway. There is an inborn dislike for authority in all humans. We are rebels by nature.
A minister, pressed for time and not finding a parking space, parked in a no parking zone and put a note on his windscreen: “I have circled the block 10 times. I have an appointment to keep. Forgive us our trespasses.” When he returned, he found a ticket along with this note: “I’ve circled this block for 10 years. If I don’t give you a ticket, I lose my job. Lead us not into temptation.”
The fact is, we all live under multiple layers of authority, and it’s very likely that we won’t care for some of those people and for the laws they pass and the rules they make. There will always be …Leaders we don’t trust, laws we don’t like, and taxes we don’t want to pay.
When Israel were in exile in Babylon, their situation was like that of Christians today - exiles looking to their promised land. God told Jeremiah to tell the exiles to build houses there, plant gardens, take wives and raise children. Then He added, 29:7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." That’s good counsel for Christians in this world: seek and pray for the welfare of the places where we live and to be good citizens.
Before Peter wrote this letter, Paul had already taught submission to government: Rom. 13:1–4 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.
One objection that might be raised to this teaching relates to unjust rulers. Submission can be hard enough when you have a good government, a fair employer. But what if your boss is unfair and the authorities won’t listen?
Peter’s words still apply? He and Paul both lived in the openly decadent Roman Empire—a society infamous for government corruption, abuse, immorality, and violence, neither apostle encouraged believers to defy civil authority.
Peter knew Pilate washed his hands of Jesus' murder. He knew Herod Antipas executed John the Baptist as a dancing prize. He was a boy when he heard that Herod the Great had killed all the children in Bethlehem.
So Peter was not naïve about the vicious world of government corruption and wickedness. If Peter could command the Christian community of his time to honour their rulers, then how much more must we honour our rulers who are not in that category—even though they may endorse acts which we regard as wrong.
We cannot make exceptions to the biblical principle of obedience to government authority based on how bad the ruler or laws may be.
Throughout history there have been various acts of civil disobedience and different subversive attempts to overthrow governments in which Christians have been a party. Scripture nowhere condones such actions. On the contrary, the biblical command is simple; submit to civil authority, regardless of its nature.
Georgy Vins the Unregistered Baptist leader in the days of communism was asked, what do the Russian Christians do to protest when the government, does things that they don't believe are right? He replied we have a basic unwritten law that everyone lives by in the church in Russia and that is, that if any Christian is ever arrested, he will be arrested for proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, nothing less. Not for protesting or something else.
Yun a famous Chinese Christian was converted during the Cultural Revolution – and later came to the West to find us praying for downfall of Communism. This was his response ‘we never pray against our government, instead we have learned that God is control of both our lives and the government we live under. God has used China’s government for His own purposes, instead of focusing our prayers against any political system we pray that regardless of what happens to us we will be pleasing to God. Don’t pray for the persecution to stop , pray that we may have a stronger back to carry the load, then the world will see God is with us, empowering us in a way that reflects his love and power. ‘Heavenly Man’ p287 That’s what I call biblical wisdom and godly grace!
Civil authority is from God, though the individual rulers may be godless. All forms of government, from dictatorships to democracies, are led by fallen sinners, so we must not expect believers to have special protection.
[2] THE PRACTICAL REASON – RULERS RESTRAIN EVIL & PROMOTE JUSTICE AND PEACE governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.
God's Design for Government is to dam up the river of evil that flows from the heart of man so that it does not flood the world with anarchy.
Even unreasonable, evil, harsh rulers and oppressive systems are far better than anarchy. Look at places like the Congo, Somalia, Lebanon not so long ago, parts of Iraq, its gang warfare, the law of the jungle.
Governments promote justice and peace by upholding law and order and by maintaining reasonable national defence. Paul writes in Romans 12: 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. The state is to restrain evil, use punishments, to bring about justice for all and promote the public good.
The real debate is, which morality should we legislate? In a democratic, pluralistic society, if a law would only be accepted by those who believe the bible, we need to be careful not to push it, even if it is biblical. But we can work to legislate many biblical standards which have broad social value and can be argued for apart from an appeal to the Bible. Many right laws can be argued for on the grounds of basic human rights, apart from Christianity.
Most unbelievers recognize the inherent “fairness” of the Golden Rule. We can use this standard as the basis for law.
Government should uphold laws supporting morality. Laws against murder and theft are moral and biblical. Laws against racial discrimination reflect the biblical teaching that God is no respecter of persons. Laws should protect citizens from being harmed by the sins of others. The fact that something is illegal will restrain many who otherwise may be tempted to engage in the particular activity.
A result of promoting justice will be peace and order in society. 1 Timothy 2: 1 ¶ I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.
We should pray that the government will maintain national defence, so that we are not overrun by powers that would rob us of our peace and liberty. And that the government will not interfere with our religious liberty.
[3] THE INTERNAL REASON—FOR THE LORD’S SAKE for the Lord’s sake
The motive for submission is that there is a direct connection between the people in authority over us, and God who is the ultimate authority. Authorities exist as they are and where they are by God’s permission. They could not rule apart from God. This means that submission to authority is really an aspect of our submission to Christ. Jesus himself said, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” Luke 6:46. Christians obey because they desire to honor God’s sovereign authority.Obedience “for the Lord’s sake” is because we know that He is watching over us even when we think the command we are obeying is needless.
Robert Culver wrote in A Biblical View of Civil Government: ‘God alone has sovereign rights.… by whatever means men come to positions of ruling—by descent, family connection, wealth, or by democratic election, “there is no power but of God” Rom. 13:1. Furthermore, civil government is an instrument, not an end.
Believers also submit in order to imitate Christ’s example of obedient submission to His Father. Christ lived under the unjust rule of the Jewish and Roman authorities, yet He never opposed their right to rule. He denounced their sins, but never sought to overturn their authority.
Jesus never led demonstrations against injustice or engaged in any act of civil disobedience. Instead of being preoccupied with political and social reform, Christ always focused on matters relating to His kingdom.
There were all kinds of abuses in the time of John Wesley. Wesley's protest against that was always a spiritual one, using the Word of God and prayer. What a tremendous impact that that had.
God is pleased when people associate Christians with spiritual graces rather than protests against human institutions. When the Lord said, “My kingdom is not of this world” John 18:36, He defined the sphere of believers’ calling and duty—to focus ministry efforts on matters related to His spiritual and eternal rule.
[4] THE EXTERNAL REASON—TO SILENCE FOOLISH PEOPLE 15 For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.
When we disobey the law, all the excuses in the world don’t matter.The reason Christians ought to submit to every authority is quite clear—such conduct muzzles the mouths of the gospel’s critics. It is making it impossible for that person to criticise. The people who need to be silenced are those who are hostile to the truth. Integrity and purity of life are all effective character tools to silence the enemies of Christ. Paul commanded Titus to tell believers on Crete this: Titus 3:1–3 Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men. When Christians live like that in the middle of a godless culture, it is a powerful testimony. On the other hand, when professing Christians disrespect authority, when they disobey the law, it gives opportunity for those who are prone to criticize Christianity.
Such upright conduct and good citizenship is especially necessary for church leaders. The man “must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach” 1 Tim. 3:7; Titus 1:6. That unimpeachable testimony before those who reject the gospel enables the grace of Christ to be seen.
An American pastor found a man doing business on a cash only and told him he was a thief, a lawbreaker, a violator of the Scriptures. He got very angry and said, "You're a lawbreaker, too!" "Maybe said the pastor, "but I don't sit around planning how I'm going to break the law."
Packer wrote, “It is a paradox of the Christian life that the more profoundly one is concerned about heaven, the more deeply one cares about God’s will being done on Earth”. Sir Frederick Catherwood, MEP put it: “To try to improve society is not worldliness, but love. To wash your hands of society is not love but worldliness”. Christian citizens should be good citizens.
God uses civil government to accomplish His purposes, so it is not wrong for Christians to be involved in the politics, but evangelism is His primary means of dealing with world problems and bringing lasting change. If we get sidetracked into winning political victories for our cause, but do not win men and women to Christ, we ultimately fail.
[5] THE MOTIVATAL REASON—SUBMISSION BRINGS FREEDOM 16 Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.
Living under authority is the greatest freedom of all. It provides protection, direction and security. Peter cautions those who are free in Christ to not use that spiritual freedom as a covering for the evil of not submitting to rulers.
Submission for most of us involves a struggle to do something we don’t want to do, or something we don’t think is necessary, or to follow instructions from a person we don’t respect. At that point, there are two dangers we face:
A] We will say too much. Proverbs 10:8, “The wise in heart accept commands, but a chattering fool comes to ruin.” How many times have children got into trouble for answering back. I did when I was young and once had the gym shoe applied to my hindquarters for my trouble.
B] We will begin to make excuses. We’ll say things like, “I don’t agree so I don’t have to submit,” or “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about,”.
Jesus said, in Matt.5:41 If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. In order that the royal commands might be delivered with safety to different parts of the empire, the Romans stationed people or horsemen at intervals on all the great public highways. One of those delivered the message to another, and so messages were passed on. These heralds were permitted to compel anyone, or commandeer any animal or boat that they might need. It was to this custom that our Saviour refers. Rather, says he, than resist a public authority, requiring your attendance, go peaceably another mile." Why? To show you are free. You are not compelled to do it, but do it willingly - for your state, and for those who represent your state.
Submission is not blind obedience. Because it is an attitude of the heart, sometimes we will disagree and will make our disagreement known forcefully. Sometimes we must speak out against those things that we know are wrong.
Stephen, the first Christian martyr, is a compelling role model of submission to earthly authority. Acts 6: describes his confrontation with the authorities and his amazing reaction to those unjust accusations: Stephen’s convicting words infuriated them, but his reaction to their violent rejection of him and his preaching was one of submission and humble, unwavering faith:
The way Stephen humbly submitted to injustice and persecution undoubtedly made some contribution to Saul of Tarsus’s bring transformed from hateful persecutor to faithful apostle of Jesus Christ.
[6] THE APPLICATION—ALL PEOPLE DESERVE RESPECT 17 Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honour the king.
Political satire is accepted fare, some of the things politicians do invite it! Even Jesus called Herod a fox, so there may be some basis for criticising certain political leaders. But we need to be careful to promote respect for government.
Titus 3:1-2, “Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be uncontentious, gentle, showing every consideration for all men.” Note how specific he is, there are no exceptions. Whether that is the government at Westminster, or Medway Borough Council, or the Inland Revenue, or the Department of Transport, or copyright laws, the police or the principal at the school you attend. Jesus Himself commands Matt. 22:21 Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.
You do not accomplish in society anything for God when you violate what God has designed for the good of society.
We ministers talked about Evolution and students recently and were reminded that we should encourage our young people to debate it, but with respect to the teacher, otherwise the gospel will be discredited.
Robert Haldane wrote that the people of God ought to consider resistance to the government as a very awful crime because it shows Christians in hostility and rebellion. That's not honouring to God. To see us in peace and graciousness, in kindness obedience, submissiveness, humility, that honours our Lord.
Peter summarises his citizenship theology—into four practical dimensions of life.
Believers are to honor all people, they are to love the brotherhood, they are to fear God, and honor the king, which brings the issue full circle.
[7] THE EXCEPTION - Is it right for Christians to participate in a revolution to overthrow a government? Is it ever right to be involved civil disobedience?
There are times when as a last resort, human laws may have to be broken. There is a fine balance that Christians must maintain. Submission to lawful authority is not an excuse for violating God’s commandments.
There may come times when certain laws passed by the government will conflict with the law of God. If the government tries to force us to disobey God, we are responsible to speak out against evil and appeal to the authorities.
If all that fails, we disobey the government and may suffer the physical, emotional and legal consequences. Accepting punishment is part of the attitude of humble submission to authority. Calvin InstitutesIV:XX:31the only command given to Christians is obey & suffer. Daniel prayed to God, not the king, in open defiance of a law to pray only to the King. He was thrown in the lions den for breaking this law, but was delivered by God. He was willing to lose his life rather than obey that law of the land.
In Acts 4, where the disciples were forbidden to mention the name of Jesus again, Peter's response was, "We must obey God rather than man." When the asked to do the opposite of what God commands, you have no choice but to disobey and bear your punishment.
This text is God’s answer to the anti-authority spirit of this age. These verses give us a framework for understanding how Christians should relate to the various authority structures. Wherever you find a human institution, there you will find people in authority and people under authority.
Those to whom Peter wrote lived with a government and society that was not favourable toward the Christian faith. It was not until the fourth century, under Constantine, that Christianity was afforded official legitimacy.
Peter has just stated the general principle that Christians are not permanent residents here, but are pilgrims journeying toward heaven. It would have been easy for his readers to conclude that we therefore have no civic responsibility here on earth. Perhaps they would have concluded that they could disobey human government, since they were citizens of heaven, not of this earth.
So Peter anticipates this wrong conclusion by showing how Christian citizens live.
[I] THE PRINCIPLE—SUBMIT TO ALL HUMAN AUTHORITY13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, 14 or to governors, who are sent by him.
Submission means obedience. It is a military term that means to “get in line.” Even if we don’t like it, we are to “get in line” anyway. There is an inborn dislike for authority in all humans. We are rebels by nature.
A minister, pressed for time and not finding a parking space, parked in a no parking zone and put a note on his windscreen: “I have circled the block 10 times. I have an appointment to keep. Forgive us our trespasses.” When he returned, he found a ticket along with this note: “I’ve circled this block for 10 years. If I don’t give you a ticket, I lose my job. Lead us not into temptation.”
The fact is, we all live under multiple layers of authority, and it’s very likely that we won’t care for some of those people and for the laws they pass and the rules they make. There will always be …Leaders we don’t trust, laws we don’t like, and taxes we don’t want to pay.
When Israel were in exile in Babylon, their situation was like that of Christians today - exiles looking to their promised land. God told Jeremiah to tell the exiles to build houses there, plant gardens, take wives and raise children. Then He added, 29:7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." That’s good counsel for Christians in this world: seek and pray for the welfare of the places where we live and to be good citizens.
Before Peter wrote this letter, Paul had already taught submission to government: Rom. 13:1–4 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.
One objection that might be raised to this teaching relates to unjust rulers. Submission can be hard enough when you have a good government, a fair employer. But what if your boss is unfair and the authorities won’t listen?
Peter’s words still apply? He and Paul both lived in the openly decadent Roman Empire—a society infamous for government corruption, abuse, immorality, and violence, neither apostle encouraged believers to defy civil authority.
Peter knew Pilate washed his hands of Jesus' murder. He knew Herod Antipas executed John the Baptist as a dancing prize. He was a boy when he heard that Herod the Great had killed all the children in Bethlehem.
So Peter was not naïve about the vicious world of government corruption and wickedness. If Peter could command the Christian community of his time to honour their rulers, then how much more must we honour our rulers who are not in that category—even though they may endorse acts which we regard as wrong.
We cannot make exceptions to the biblical principle of obedience to government authority based on how bad the ruler or laws may be.
Throughout history there have been various acts of civil disobedience and different subversive attempts to overthrow governments in which Christians have been a party. Scripture nowhere condones such actions. On the contrary, the biblical command is simple; submit to civil authority, regardless of its nature.
Georgy Vins the Unregistered Baptist leader in the days of communism was asked, what do the Russian Christians do to protest when the government, does things that they don't believe are right? He replied we have a basic unwritten law that everyone lives by in the church in Russia and that is, that if any Christian is ever arrested, he will be arrested for proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, nothing less. Not for protesting or something else.
Yun a famous Chinese Christian was converted during the Cultural Revolution – and later came to the West to find us praying for downfall of Communism. This was his response ‘we never pray against our government, instead we have learned that God is control of both our lives and the government we live under. God has used China’s government for His own purposes, instead of focusing our prayers against any political system we pray that regardless of what happens to us we will be pleasing to God. Don’t pray for the persecution to stop , pray that we may have a stronger back to carry the load, then the world will see God is with us, empowering us in a way that reflects his love and power. ‘Heavenly Man’ p287 That’s what I call biblical wisdom and godly grace!
Civil authority is from God, though the individual rulers may be godless. All forms of government, from dictatorships to democracies, are led by fallen sinners, so we must not expect believers to have special protection.
[2] THE PRACTICAL REASON – RULERS RESTRAIN EVIL & PROMOTE JUSTICE AND PEACE governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right.
God's Design for Government is to dam up the river of evil that flows from the heart of man so that it does not flood the world with anarchy.
Even unreasonable, evil, harsh rulers and oppressive systems are far better than anarchy. Look at places like the Congo, Somalia, Lebanon not so long ago, parts of Iraq, its gang warfare, the law of the jungle.
Governments promote justice and peace by upholding law and order and by maintaining reasonable national defence. Paul writes in Romans 12: 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. The state is to restrain evil, use punishments, to bring about justice for all and promote the public good.
The real debate is, which morality should we legislate? In a democratic, pluralistic society, if a law would only be accepted by those who believe the bible, we need to be careful not to push it, even if it is biblical. But we can work to legislate many biblical standards which have broad social value and can be argued for apart from an appeal to the Bible. Many right laws can be argued for on the grounds of basic human rights, apart from Christianity.
Most unbelievers recognize the inherent “fairness” of the Golden Rule. We can use this standard as the basis for law.
Government should uphold laws supporting morality. Laws against murder and theft are moral and biblical. Laws against racial discrimination reflect the biblical teaching that God is no respecter of persons. Laws should protect citizens from being harmed by the sins of others. The fact that something is illegal will restrain many who otherwise may be tempted to engage in the particular activity.
A result of promoting justice will be peace and order in society. 1 Timothy 2: 1 ¶ I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.
We should pray that the government will maintain national defence, so that we are not overrun by powers that would rob us of our peace and liberty. And that the government will not interfere with our religious liberty.
[3] THE INTERNAL REASON—FOR THE LORD’S SAKE for the Lord’s sake
The motive for submission is that there is a direct connection between the people in authority over us, and God who is the ultimate authority. Authorities exist as they are and where they are by God’s permission. They could not rule apart from God. This means that submission to authority is really an aspect of our submission to Christ. Jesus himself said, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” Luke 6:46. Christians obey because they desire to honor God’s sovereign authority.Obedience “for the Lord’s sake” is because we know that He is watching over us even when we think the command we are obeying is needless.
Robert Culver wrote in A Biblical View of Civil Government: ‘God alone has sovereign rights.… by whatever means men come to positions of ruling—by descent, family connection, wealth, or by democratic election, “there is no power but of God” Rom. 13:1. Furthermore, civil government is an instrument, not an end.
Believers also submit in order to imitate Christ’s example of obedient submission to His Father. Christ lived under the unjust rule of the Jewish and Roman authorities, yet He never opposed their right to rule. He denounced their sins, but never sought to overturn their authority.
Jesus never led demonstrations against injustice or engaged in any act of civil disobedience. Instead of being preoccupied with political and social reform, Christ always focused on matters relating to His kingdom.
There were all kinds of abuses in the time of John Wesley. Wesley's protest against that was always a spiritual one, using the Word of God and prayer. What a tremendous impact that that had.
God is pleased when people associate Christians with spiritual graces rather than protests against human institutions. When the Lord said, “My kingdom is not of this world” John 18:36, He defined the sphere of believers’ calling and duty—to focus ministry efforts on matters related to His spiritual and eternal rule.
[4] THE EXTERNAL REASON—TO SILENCE FOOLISH PEOPLE 15 For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.
When we disobey the law, all the excuses in the world don’t matter.The reason Christians ought to submit to every authority is quite clear—such conduct muzzles the mouths of the gospel’s critics. It is making it impossible for that person to criticise. The people who need to be silenced are those who are hostile to the truth. Integrity and purity of life are all effective character tools to silence the enemies of Christ. Paul commanded Titus to tell believers on Crete this: Titus 3:1–3 Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men. When Christians live like that in the middle of a godless culture, it is a powerful testimony. On the other hand, when professing Christians disrespect authority, when they disobey the law, it gives opportunity for those who are prone to criticize Christianity.
Such upright conduct and good citizenship is especially necessary for church leaders. The man “must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach” 1 Tim. 3:7; Titus 1:6. That unimpeachable testimony before those who reject the gospel enables the grace of Christ to be seen.
An American pastor found a man doing business on a cash only and told him he was a thief, a lawbreaker, a violator of the Scriptures. He got very angry and said, "You're a lawbreaker, too!" "Maybe said the pastor, "but I don't sit around planning how I'm going to break the law."
Packer wrote, “It is a paradox of the Christian life that the more profoundly one is concerned about heaven, the more deeply one cares about God’s will being done on Earth”. Sir Frederick Catherwood, MEP put it: “To try to improve society is not worldliness, but love. To wash your hands of society is not love but worldliness”. Christian citizens should be good citizens.
God uses civil government to accomplish His purposes, so it is not wrong for Christians to be involved in the politics, but evangelism is His primary means of dealing with world problems and bringing lasting change. If we get sidetracked into winning political victories for our cause, but do not win men and women to Christ, we ultimately fail.
[5] THE MOTIVATAL REASON—SUBMISSION BRINGS FREEDOM 16 Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.
Living under authority is the greatest freedom of all. It provides protection, direction and security. Peter cautions those who are free in Christ to not use that spiritual freedom as a covering for the evil of not submitting to rulers.
Submission for most of us involves a struggle to do something we don’t want to do, or something we don’t think is necessary, or to follow instructions from a person we don’t respect. At that point, there are two dangers we face:
A] We will say too much. Proverbs 10:8, “The wise in heart accept commands, but a chattering fool comes to ruin.” How many times have children got into trouble for answering back. I did when I was young and once had the gym shoe applied to my hindquarters for my trouble.
B] We will begin to make excuses. We’ll say things like, “I don’t agree so I don’t have to submit,” or “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about,”.
Jesus said, in Matt.5:41 If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. In order that the royal commands might be delivered with safety to different parts of the empire, the Romans stationed people or horsemen at intervals on all the great public highways. One of those delivered the message to another, and so messages were passed on. These heralds were permitted to compel anyone, or commandeer any animal or boat that they might need. It was to this custom that our Saviour refers. Rather, says he, than resist a public authority, requiring your attendance, go peaceably another mile." Why? To show you are free. You are not compelled to do it, but do it willingly - for your state, and for those who represent your state.
Submission is not blind obedience. Because it is an attitude of the heart, sometimes we will disagree and will make our disagreement known forcefully. Sometimes we must speak out against those things that we know are wrong.
Stephen, the first Christian martyr, is a compelling role model of submission to earthly authority. Acts 6: describes his confrontation with the authorities and his amazing reaction to those unjust accusations: Stephen’s convicting words infuriated them, but his reaction to their violent rejection of him and his preaching was one of submission and humble, unwavering faith:
The way Stephen humbly submitted to injustice and persecution undoubtedly made some contribution to Saul of Tarsus’s bring transformed from hateful persecutor to faithful apostle of Jesus Christ.
[6] THE APPLICATION—ALL PEOPLE DESERVE RESPECT 17 Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honour the king.
Political satire is accepted fare, some of the things politicians do invite it! Even Jesus called Herod a fox, so there may be some basis for criticising certain political leaders. But we need to be careful to promote respect for government.
Titus 3:1-2, “Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be uncontentious, gentle, showing every consideration for all men.” Note how specific he is, there are no exceptions. Whether that is the government at Westminster, or Medway Borough Council, or the Inland Revenue, or the Department of Transport, or copyright laws, the police or the principal at the school you attend. Jesus Himself commands Matt. 22:21 Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.
You do not accomplish in society anything for God when you violate what God has designed for the good of society.
We ministers talked about Evolution and students recently and were reminded that we should encourage our young people to debate it, but with respect to the teacher, otherwise the gospel will be discredited.
Robert Haldane wrote that the people of God ought to consider resistance to the government as a very awful crime because it shows Christians in hostility and rebellion. That's not honouring to God. To see us in peace and graciousness, in kindness obedience, submissiveness, humility, that honours our Lord.
Peter summarises his citizenship theology—into four practical dimensions of life.
Believers are to honor all people, they are to love the brotherhood, they are to fear God, and honor the king, which brings the issue full circle.
[7] THE EXCEPTION - Is it right for Christians to participate in a revolution to overthrow a government? Is it ever right to be involved civil disobedience?
There are times when as a last resort, human laws may have to be broken. There is a fine balance that Christians must maintain. Submission to lawful authority is not an excuse for violating God’s commandments.
There may come times when certain laws passed by the government will conflict with the law of God. If the government tries to force us to disobey God, we are responsible to speak out against evil and appeal to the authorities.
If all that fails, we disobey the government and may suffer the physical, emotional and legal consequences. Accepting punishment is part of the attitude of humble submission to authority. Calvin InstitutesIV:XX:31the only command given to Christians is obey & suffer. Daniel prayed to God, not the king, in open defiance of a law to pray only to the King. He was thrown in the lions den for breaking this law, but was delivered by God. He was willing to lose his life rather than obey that law of the land.
In Acts 4, where the disciples were forbidden to mention the name of Jesus again, Peter's response was, "We must obey God rather than man." When the asked to do the opposite of what God commands, you have no choice but to disobey and bear your punishment.
Civilization
Reading - Genesis 4:16-26; Hebrews 12:22-29
This chapter records the origin of secular and sacred society.
We live in a world of dizzying technological progress.
As Christians, we are called to live in this changing and advancing world and to use the things of the world, wisely and well. To often the story of mankind’s progress has been regress because advances have been used to advance sin. For instance the internet it was hoped would make precious knowledge accessible but it has also been perverted to spread pornography.
Progress without God’s truth to channel it, will lead to more problems to solve, and more sophisticated crime. In Genesis 4:16-26 we see, in Cain’s descendants, the world caught up with progress without God.
But at the end of the chapter there is a glimmer of hope in the descendants of Seth, a remnant of people who call upon God.
These two strands of people write human history. There are only two families in the world today - there's the secular family, and there's the sacred family. And that's the way it's always been. Cain models for us the secular and material culture, Seth models for us the sacred family and spiritual society.
[I] THE START OF SECULAR SOCIETY 17 Cain lay with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch. 18 To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech.
After murdering his brother, Cain refused God’s call to repent. Instead, Cain turned his back on God and was sentenced by God to restlessly wander the earth. No one could kill him, but he would live forever with his guilty conscience, never feeling at home, never feeling entirely safe. He cannot work the ground and he will not die for a long time. What will he do? Where will he go?
These verses tell about Cain and the civilization that flowed from him. Here is the beginning of secular society—that is, society lived apart from God and his guidance. As we think about the marks of secular society, here are four “C” words that help us remember.
A] Construction marks Secular society
First, Cain constructs a family.
Sometimes people wonder, where did Cain get his wife? With regard to Cain’s wife, Genesis 5:4 states that during Adam’s long life, he and Eve had many sons and daughters besides those named in these chapters. So obviously Cain would have had no trouble finding a suitable wife from somewhere within his extended family. And since this occurred early in human history, the gene pool could still be clean and relatively free from pollution. Later on, God would forbid marriage between close relatives. But at this early date, there were no mutant genes in the genetic system and no sin was involved. Cain had to marry someone from his own extended family since there was no one else to choose from.
Second, Cain constructs a city. "City" means, a fenced-in complex of dwellings; it could be any size, large or small. He was trying to erect a place to settle in. The indication is that he couldn't succeed at it and called the name of the city "Enoch," after the name of his son. Here is the beginning of urbanization.
This 21c is the age of the city and skyscraper, the world is undergoing the largest wave of urban growth in history. In 2008, for the first time in history, more than half of the world’s population will be living in towns and cities. In the developing world people are moving to enormous growing cities everywhere.
Cities can deliver education, work, health care and other services more efficiently. Tim Keller - We are entering a globalised, urbanised and post-secular world. This means that we are going to be more like the Roman Empire than anything seen in centuries. Cities are multi-ethnic and international in unprecedented ways. It is a fragmented, pluralistic world again, with have traditional, secular, and pagan world-views living side by side.
Where did all the people come from to populate a city? We know from Genesis 5 that people lived hundreds of years back then. Adam lived for 930 years and we can presume Eve lived at least as long. So how many children do you think they had?
Someone very conservatively calculated that Adam would have lived to see a million descendants.
The rapid growth in population helps us understand Cain’s need to build a city. In some ways, this is a self-protection measure since he lived in fear” that someone might harm him in spite of God’s “mark.
No doubt also Cain stayed busy to cover up the emptiness of his soul and forget his guilt. He wanted a bustling city to compensate for what he lost—his hope and happiness and direction in life. The same is true for many people today.
Cities are fun and exciting, especially when compared with the slow pace of country life. They call Las Vegas the city that never sleeps, but that could be said about any large city. There is a pulsating power in a big city that draws people.
The city has buzz, music and action 24/7. Go to any large city and there you will find the best that modern life has to offer: restaurants of every variety, entertainment galore, sports, universities, large stores, transport, waterways and parks, the latest fashions, the seat of government, the largest churches, the biggest banks, and the extremes of life.
Millions of people move to the city hoping things will change for the better.
But often it doesn’t work. The loneliest and the saddest are city people. For all its glamour, there is also a seamy side to every big city. Where the masses gather, there you find sadness, heartache, crime, corruption and enormous human pain.
Cain built a city and focused on the secular advantages it gave but it is not a permanent home, it does not mean we will be settled and at peace in our hearts and minds. Spiritual wholeness does not come from the buzz of a secular life but a mind at peace with God.
Rootlessness is the basic ingredient all secular cultures. Simone Weil, a brilliant French writer who lived in London during the war and died there in 1943, wrote a book entitled The Need for Roots. She concluded that the only cure is a rediscovery of the human being as God’s creature and of God himself as the source of those basic elements without which a proper civilization cannot function: order, liberty, obedience, responsibility, and equality, the right to express one’s opinion, security, private property, truth, and others.
Weil is right. Our roots are in God; and if we will not have God, we are condemned to be rootless.
[B] Corruption marks Secular society 19“Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah”
The second feature of civilization without God is corruption. Lamech just did what he felt like doing. He decided to marry two women. He became the first polygamist, instead of one man with one woman for life. The names of his wives suggest that he was motivated by sensual impulses. Adah means “beauty” and Zillah means something like “tinkling.” The name of the daughter, Naamah, means “lovely. The emphasis was on outward beauty, not on the inner character.
Like no culture in history, we are bombarded with sensual appeals to the flesh. Today, this moral cancer is portrayed as progress: People say we’ve freed ourselves from Victorian ideas of sexual purity. We’re free from restrictive divorce laws which kept people bound in unhappy marriages.” And so we have cast off God’s plan for moral purity, for marriage and the family under the guise of progress. Now people in general are no longer are shocked by these things. Society tolerates all kinds of sexual relationships; people now freely pursue the fulfilment of their own fleshly desires. But God is not mocked, He sees our rebellion, there is a price to pay both in time and in coming judgement.
[C] Culture marks Secular society 20“Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play the harp and flute. Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain’s sister was Naamah. These verses remind us of the positive progress of human culture in the line of Cain. These two wives gave Lamech at least four children. And the boys took society to the next level.
Jabal, was the first into animal husbandry, breeding and training for human use.
Jubal was father of music, the first artist, inventing and making stringed and wind instruments. There would be the need to invent a scale; understand the tones, arrange the music and design instruments to play it.
Tubal-cain, from the other wife, Zillah, was the founder of technology, metal work and tools. Metallurgy is a skill of great science, mining, smelting, and shaping.
If people are creative now, what were they like then? How refined could art and craftsmanship become with a pristine mind, living hundreds of years in a congenial earth, which provided all of the resources.
These folks were no grunting, snorting cavemen, chewing raw flesh. Mankind was more wonderful, capable; stronger, healthier, wiser, more skilled and more experienced than any man we've ever met.
The world has benefited by modern agriculture, by the arts and by technology.
These things are possible because even sinful men and women still possess the image of God that allows them to think, to create, to grow, to develop, to experiment and to explore new territory.
As Christians, we ought to be thankful to live in a world with many creature comforts. And in enjoying the good things, we ought also to give thanks to the Lord who gave man the ability to make it all possible.
However in our culture, inventions which could benefit mankind are twisted to promote destruction. Without Christ we go backwards. The arts and music, which can be a wholesome expression of human creativity, are trivialised, perverted and degrade people made in the image of God, music is used to spread a message of anarchy and meaninglessness.
Technological knowledge is used to develop weapons to kill and main, to make gambling easier, to encourage promiscuity. Understanding of creatures is used to ill-treat them and train them to fight– mark the great increase in dog fights and cruelty highlighted this week. Taking us back two centuries.
[D] Crime marks Secular society 23-24 “Lamech said to his wives, ‘Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times’.
This is the oldest song in the Bible. Lamech wrote some lyrics for a song celebrating violence. It has been called ‘The Sword Song’ a “macho” song of the world’s first Rambo boasting in his strength. He calls his wives together and tells them how hard he is. The words may mean that he has already killed a youngster who provoked him, or a threat that if anyone messes with him, he will kill them. There is total disdain for human life.
Moreover he is boasting against God. He is saying that he can take care of himself far better than God took care of Cain-- seventy-sevenfold! This shows that he knew of God, but exalts himself above God. What blasphemy! He is the epitome of the self-sufficient man. He can take care of himself. He does not need God. But what is his attitude toward other human beings? Parallel with his exaltation of himself is a lowering of his sense of the value of others, for he is ready to wipe them out for as small an offense as wounding himself. Like a thug, he thinks revenge is the way to live and no one dare bring him to justice.
When a society or individuals start boasting about sin, it has hit the bottom. The spiritual and moral failure of this early civilization is seen in their defiance of God and in their pride.
Removing the fear of God from our culture, why should we be surprised at the drunkenness, the violence, and the bloodshed around us? When there is no fear of God or of authority, no Father figures in the home, should we be surprised that kids with guns are murdering other kids.
We have become our own gods and those who live by the Lord’s truth are derided as narrow-minded, old-fashioned, exclusive, and intolerant.
Yes, the line of Cain produces great cultural benefits. Yet it is marred by self-indulgence, vanity and unrestrained violence. Cain and his descendants gave us secular society and secular society gave us Noah’s Flood.
The world tries to fill the emptiness of life without God with all these good gifts which God has given for the human race. But each of them can turn into a nightmare without God.
Children can become brazen murderers, like Cain or Lamech.
Cities can become hopeless jungles of loneliness, poverty and violence.
Culture, music, literature, and films--can be used to glorify perversion.
Careers can be used to further selfish ambition.
Inventions have brought us to the brink of destroying the human race.
The problem isn’t in these cultural and technological advances. The problem is when these things are done apart from God’s principals and His ethical guidelines. Progress without God is only illusory.
[2] THE START OF A SPIRITUAL SOCIETY 25 ¶ Adam lay with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, "God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him." 26 Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD. - Progress with God is true progress.
These two verses of our passage offer a short view of the spiritual line. When the godless seem to rule the world, what can the righteous do? How do we maintain our faith and pass it along to the next generation when the majority culture moves in another direction? There are two ways we can resist the existing tide.
[A] By Maintaining Spiritual Families 25“Adam lay with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, ‘God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him’”.
Adam and Eve recognized Seth as the replacement for Abel, not for Cain. Eve knew that God could not use Cain to fulfil His promise. And her faith was rewarded, in the fullness of time the promised Seed the Lord Jesus Christ was born of a woman whose genealogy is traced through Seth to Adam Luke 3:38.
The name Seth means “appointed.” They saw him as a gift from God, a new beginning after the murder of Abel. They wanted children to pass on the knowledge of God. Prior to this one had believe done had not now again they hoped and prayed for another who would love God and prayer was answered.
In biblical times, names were important. Seth named his son Enosh, which means “mortal.” Instead of boasting about his strength, as Lamech did, Seth readily acknowledged his weakness by naming his son, “Frail One
The faith of Adam and Eve now passes to their son and grandson. That’s our desire and prayer as well.
[B] By Maintaining Spiritual Worship “Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD”
Seth and his family confessed their need of God. The Hebrew concept of “calling on the name” of the Lord has two parts. It can mean to call on the Lord in prayer. So people came to God in prayer and worship.
The word “call” means to proclaim publicly. This was beginning of public worship. The “name” refers to all that God had revealed about Himself. While the significance of the name “Yahweh” was not revealed to God’s people until Moses Exod. 3:13-15, God’s character as the personal covenant God was known. Seth’s descendants began to call upon God as the personal, caring God, trusting fully in Him.
The crowd was going the other direction, but a group of people openly said, “We belong to the Lord. They were not ashamed to be called the people of the God.
They openly confessed their faith while Lamech boasted of sin, and others followed physical pursuits, and while society began to spiral morally downward.
Luther saw this as the formation of “a small church … in which Adam, rules everything by the Word and sound doctrine.” Calvin saw it as “a restoration of religion” such as had happened in his day.
The believers of these days did constitute a small church, and it was a miracle.
Compared with building cities, founding cultural enterprises, and launching industries, “calling on the name of the Lord” doesn’t sound much like progress.
#1l Remember, God never leaves himself without a witness. Believers around the world can make a huge difference. Never will the culture be entirely Christian but without the Christian influence, it will always deteriorate. Society will always be a strange combination of good and evil centred in the great cities of the world.
#2] Remember, we have no reason to envy the ungodly. They have the power but lack the wisdom to use it wisely. They can manage their world but not their own lives. Those whose names are not written in heaven must work desperately to leave a legacy on the earth. The greatest treasures of earth are no match for the pleasures of knowing God. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all [things] are yours; and you are Christ's; and Christ is God's, 1 Cor 3:21-23.
#3] Remember, we must not make the world all-important. Enjoy the world but don’t fall in love with it. And don’t measure your success by the standards of the world. You are doomed to unhappiness if you do. Even advanced culture, however refined and beautiful, has no redeeming power. Earth has nothing to offer in substitute for God.: “And this world is fading away, along with everything it craves. But if you do the will of God, you will live forever” I John 2:17.
Hebrews says that Abraham "looked forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God," Heb 11:10. Heaven is all the good that a city can offer without all the evil that ruins it. Its focus is not man but God.
How about you? are you putting your energy into progress in the things of this world, or into true progress with God at the centre of your life.
There are only two ways to live. There is the broad way, which leads to destruction; and the narrow way, that leads to life, as God intended it to be lived.
This chapter records the origin of secular and sacred society.
We live in a world of dizzying technological progress.
As Christians, we are called to live in this changing and advancing world and to use the things of the world, wisely and well. To often the story of mankind’s progress has been regress because advances have been used to advance sin. For instance the internet it was hoped would make precious knowledge accessible but it has also been perverted to spread pornography.
Progress without God’s truth to channel it, will lead to more problems to solve, and more sophisticated crime. In Genesis 4:16-26 we see, in Cain’s descendants, the world caught up with progress without God.
But at the end of the chapter there is a glimmer of hope in the descendants of Seth, a remnant of people who call upon God.
These two strands of people write human history. There are only two families in the world today - there's the secular family, and there's the sacred family. And that's the way it's always been. Cain models for us the secular and material culture, Seth models for us the sacred family and spiritual society.
[I] THE START OF SECULAR SOCIETY 17 Cain lay with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch. 18 To Enoch was born Irad, and Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methushael, and Methushael was the father of Lamech.
After murdering his brother, Cain refused God’s call to repent. Instead, Cain turned his back on God and was sentenced by God to restlessly wander the earth. No one could kill him, but he would live forever with his guilty conscience, never feeling at home, never feeling entirely safe. He cannot work the ground and he will not die for a long time. What will he do? Where will he go?
These verses tell about Cain and the civilization that flowed from him. Here is the beginning of secular society—that is, society lived apart from God and his guidance. As we think about the marks of secular society, here are four “C” words that help us remember.
A] Construction marks Secular society
First, Cain constructs a family.
Sometimes people wonder, where did Cain get his wife? With regard to Cain’s wife, Genesis 5:4 states that during Adam’s long life, he and Eve had many sons and daughters besides those named in these chapters. So obviously Cain would have had no trouble finding a suitable wife from somewhere within his extended family. And since this occurred early in human history, the gene pool could still be clean and relatively free from pollution. Later on, God would forbid marriage between close relatives. But at this early date, there were no mutant genes in the genetic system and no sin was involved. Cain had to marry someone from his own extended family since there was no one else to choose from.
Second, Cain constructs a city. "City" means, a fenced-in complex of dwellings; it could be any size, large or small. He was trying to erect a place to settle in. The indication is that he couldn't succeed at it and called the name of the city "Enoch," after the name of his son. Here is the beginning of urbanization.
This 21c is the age of the city and skyscraper, the world is undergoing the largest wave of urban growth in history. In 2008, for the first time in history, more than half of the world’s population will be living in towns and cities. In the developing world people are moving to enormous growing cities everywhere.
Cities can deliver education, work, health care and other services more efficiently. Tim Keller - We are entering a globalised, urbanised and post-secular world. This means that we are going to be more like the Roman Empire than anything seen in centuries. Cities are multi-ethnic and international in unprecedented ways. It is a fragmented, pluralistic world again, with have traditional, secular, and pagan world-views living side by side.
Where did all the people come from to populate a city? We know from Genesis 5 that people lived hundreds of years back then. Adam lived for 930 years and we can presume Eve lived at least as long. So how many children do you think they had?
Someone very conservatively calculated that Adam would have lived to see a million descendants.
The rapid growth in population helps us understand Cain’s need to build a city. In some ways, this is a self-protection measure since he lived in fear” that someone might harm him in spite of God’s “mark.
No doubt also Cain stayed busy to cover up the emptiness of his soul and forget his guilt. He wanted a bustling city to compensate for what he lost—his hope and happiness and direction in life. The same is true for many people today.
Cities are fun and exciting, especially when compared with the slow pace of country life. They call Las Vegas the city that never sleeps, but that could be said about any large city. There is a pulsating power in a big city that draws people.
The city has buzz, music and action 24/7. Go to any large city and there you will find the best that modern life has to offer: restaurants of every variety, entertainment galore, sports, universities, large stores, transport, waterways and parks, the latest fashions, the seat of government, the largest churches, the biggest banks, and the extremes of life.
Millions of people move to the city hoping things will change for the better.
But often it doesn’t work. The loneliest and the saddest are city people. For all its glamour, there is also a seamy side to every big city. Where the masses gather, there you find sadness, heartache, crime, corruption and enormous human pain.
Cain built a city and focused on the secular advantages it gave but it is not a permanent home, it does not mean we will be settled and at peace in our hearts and minds. Spiritual wholeness does not come from the buzz of a secular life but a mind at peace with God.
Rootlessness is the basic ingredient all secular cultures. Simone Weil, a brilliant French writer who lived in London during the war and died there in 1943, wrote a book entitled The Need for Roots. She concluded that the only cure is a rediscovery of the human being as God’s creature and of God himself as the source of those basic elements without which a proper civilization cannot function: order, liberty, obedience, responsibility, and equality, the right to express one’s opinion, security, private property, truth, and others.
Weil is right. Our roots are in God; and if we will not have God, we are condemned to be rootless.
[B] Corruption marks Secular society 19“Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah”
The second feature of civilization without God is corruption. Lamech just did what he felt like doing. He decided to marry two women. He became the first polygamist, instead of one man with one woman for life. The names of his wives suggest that he was motivated by sensual impulses. Adah means “beauty” and Zillah means something like “tinkling.” The name of the daughter, Naamah, means “lovely. The emphasis was on outward beauty, not on the inner character.
Like no culture in history, we are bombarded with sensual appeals to the flesh. Today, this moral cancer is portrayed as progress: People say we’ve freed ourselves from Victorian ideas of sexual purity. We’re free from restrictive divorce laws which kept people bound in unhappy marriages.” And so we have cast off God’s plan for moral purity, for marriage and the family under the guise of progress. Now people in general are no longer are shocked by these things. Society tolerates all kinds of sexual relationships; people now freely pursue the fulfilment of their own fleshly desires. But God is not mocked, He sees our rebellion, there is a price to pay both in time and in coming judgement.
[C] Culture marks Secular society 20“Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play the harp and flute. Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain’s sister was Naamah. These verses remind us of the positive progress of human culture in the line of Cain. These two wives gave Lamech at least four children. And the boys took society to the next level.
Jabal, was the first into animal husbandry, breeding and training for human use.
Jubal was father of music, the first artist, inventing and making stringed and wind instruments. There would be the need to invent a scale; understand the tones, arrange the music and design instruments to play it.
Tubal-cain, from the other wife, Zillah, was the founder of technology, metal work and tools. Metallurgy is a skill of great science, mining, smelting, and shaping.
If people are creative now, what were they like then? How refined could art and craftsmanship become with a pristine mind, living hundreds of years in a congenial earth, which provided all of the resources.
These folks were no grunting, snorting cavemen, chewing raw flesh. Mankind was more wonderful, capable; stronger, healthier, wiser, more skilled and more experienced than any man we've ever met.
The world has benefited by modern agriculture, by the arts and by technology.
These things are possible because even sinful men and women still possess the image of God that allows them to think, to create, to grow, to develop, to experiment and to explore new territory.
As Christians, we ought to be thankful to live in a world with many creature comforts. And in enjoying the good things, we ought also to give thanks to the Lord who gave man the ability to make it all possible.
However in our culture, inventions which could benefit mankind are twisted to promote destruction. Without Christ we go backwards. The arts and music, which can be a wholesome expression of human creativity, are trivialised, perverted and degrade people made in the image of God, music is used to spread a message of anarchy and meaninglessness.
Technological knowledge is used to develop weapons to kill and main, to make gambling easier, to encourage promiscuity. Understanding of creatures is used to ill-treat them and train them to fight– mark the great increase in dog fights and cruelty highlighted this week. Taking us back two centuries.
[D] Crime marks Secular society 23-24 “Lamech said to his wives, ‘Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times’.
This is the oldest song in the Bible. Lamech wrote some lyrics for a song celebrating violence. It has been called ‘The Sword Song’ a “macho” song of the world’s first Rambo boasting in his strength. He calls his wives together and tells them how hard he is. The words may mean that he has already killed a youngster who provoked him, or a threat that if anyone messes with him, he will kill them. There is total disdain for human life.
Moreover he is boasting against God. He is saying that he can take care of himself far better than God took care of Cain-- seventy-sevenfold! This shows that he knew of God, but exalts himself above God. What blasphemy! He is the epitome of the self-sufficient man. He can take care of himself. He does not need God. But what is his attitude toward other human beings? Parallel with his exaltation of himself is a lowering of his sense of the value of others, for he is ready to wipe them out for as small an offense as wounding himself. Like a thug, he thinks revenge is the way to live and no one dare bring him to justice.
When a society or individuals start boasting about sin, it has hit the bottom. The spiritual and moral failure of this early civilization is seen in their defiance of God and in their pride.
Removing the fear of God from our culture, why should we be surprised at the drunkenness, the violence, and the bloodshed around us? When there is no fear of God or of authority, no Father figures in the home, should we be surprised that kids with guns are murdering other kids.
We have become our own gods and those who live by the Lord’s truth are derided as narrow-minded, old-fashioned, exclusive, and intolerant.
Yes, the line of Cain produces great cultural benefits. Yet it is marred by self-indulgence, vanity and unrestrained violence. Cain and his descendants gave us secular society and secular society gave us Noah’s Flood.
The world tries to fill the emptiness of life without God with all these good gifts which God has given for the human race. But each of them can turn into a nightmare without God.
Children can become brazen murderers, like Cain or Lamech.
Cities can become hopeless jungles of loneliness, poverty and violence.
Culture, music, literature, and films--can be used to glorify perversion.
Careers can be used to further selfish ambition.
Inventions have brought us to the brink of destroying the human race.
The problem isn’t in these cultural and technological advances. The problem is when these things are done apart from God’s principals and His ethical guidelines. Progress without God is only illusory.
[2] THE START OF A SPIRITUAL SOCIETY 25 ¶ Adam lay with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, "God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him." 26 Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD. - Progress with God is true progress.
These two verses of our passage offer a short view of the spiritual line. When the godless seem to rule the world, what can the righteous do? How do we maintain our faith and pass it along to the next generation when the majority culture moves in another direction? There are two ways we can resist the existing tide.
[A] By Maintaining Spiritual Families 25“Adam lay with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, ‘God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him’”.
Adam and Eve recognized Seth as the replacement for Abel, not for Cain. Eve knew that God could not use Cain to fulfil His promise. And her faith was rewarded, in the fullness of time the promised Seed the Lord Jesus Christ was born of a woman whose genealogy is traced through Seth to Adam Luke 3:38.
The name Seth means “appointed.” They saw him as a gift from God, a new beginning after the murder of Abel. They wanted children to pass on the knowledge of God. Prior to this one had believe done had not now again they hoped and prayed for another who would love God and prayer was answered.
In biblical times, names were important. Seth named his son Enosh, which means “mortal.” Instead of boasting about his strength, as Lamech did, Seth readily acknowledged his weakness by naming his son, “Frail One
The faith of Adam and Eve now passes to their son and grandson. That’s our desire and prayer as well.
[B] By Maintaining Spiritual Worship “Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD”
Seth and his family confessed their need of God. The Hebrew concept of “calling on the name” of the Lord has two parts. It can mean to call on the Lord in prayer. So people came to God in prayer and worship.
The word “call” means to proclaim publicly. This was beginning of public worship. The “name” refers to all that God had revealed about Himself. While the significance of the name “Yahweh” was not revealed to God’s people until Moses Exod. 3:13-15, God’s character as the personal covenant God was known. Seth’s descendants began to call upon God as the personal, caring God, trusting fully in Him.
The crowd was going the other direction, but a group of people openly said, “We belong to the Lord. They were not ashamed to be called the people of the God.
They openly confessed their faith while Lamech boasted of sin, and others followed physical pursuits, and while society began to spiral morally downward.
Luther saw this as the formation of “a small church … in which Adam, rules everything by the Word and sound doctrine.” Calvin saw it as “a restoration of religion” such as had happened in his day.
The believers of these days did constitute a small church, and it was a miracle.
Compared with building cities, founding cultural enterprises, and launching industries, “calling on the name of the Lord” doesn’t sound much like progress.
#1l Remember, God never leaves himself without a witness. Believers around the world can make a huge difference. Never will the culture be entirely Christian but without the Christian influence, it will always deteriorate. Society will always be a strange combination of good and evil centred in the great cities of the world.
#2] Remember, we have no reason to envy the ungodly. They have the power but lack the wisdom to use it wisely. They can manage their world but not their own lives. Those whose names are not written in heaven must work desperately to leave a legacy on the earth. The greatest treasures of earth are no match for the pleasures of knowing God. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all [things] are yours; and you are Christ's; and Christ is God's, 1 Cor 3:21-23.
#3] Remember, we must not make the world all-important. Enjoy the world but don’t fall in love with it. And don’t measure your success by the standards of the world. You are doomed to unhappiness if you do. Even advanced culture, however refined and beautiful, has no redeeming power. Earth has nothing to offer in substitute for God.: “And this world is fading away, along with everything it craves. But if you do the will of God, you will live forever” I John 2:17.
Hebrews says that Abraham "looked forward to the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God," Heb 11:10. Heaven is all the good that a city can offer without all the evil that ruins it. Its focus is not man but God.
How about you? are you putting your energy into progress in the things of this world, or into true progress with God at the centre of your life.
There are only two ways to live. There is the broad way, which leads to destruction; and the narrow way, that leads to life, as God intended it to be lived.
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