Jesus: Power, Pattern, Protection

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"When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly."

1 Peter 2:23

Main Readings: Hebrews 11 & 1 Peter 2:11-3:7

Supporting Readings: Psalm 23 & Isaiah 53

If you ask people what they are prepared to suffer, the answers that come back are more varied than you might think.

Runners are willing to suffer for a ‘personal best’. Only this week I heard of a man who pushed himself so hard in the Boston Marathon that with 800m to go, his legs physically gave way. Only 800m! He could see the finish line, but he couldn’t move another 80cm, never mind the 800m he needed to finish the race.

Mothers are willing to suffer for their babies. Many of us have experienced, first-hand, the suffering a mother is willing to bear to bring their child into the world.

Soldiers are willing to suffer for their country.

Visiting the battle fields of the Somme recently, shows the tremendous suffering that those who went to the first world war endured. And yetthey recognised that it was for their king and country they were fighting.

What is consistent amongst those who suffer for something is that what motivates them – unanimously – is their perception of the valueof that for which they suffer.

In all cases, the value of the cause for which the suffering is endured isestimated to be of greater worth than the cost associated with the suffering.

A baby is more valuable than the cost of the suffering to bring it into the world. The soldier perceives that the value of national freedom is more valuable than the cost of the suffering it takes to protect that freedom.

And even the runner, somehow – I don’t know how, but somehow – believes that the value of the personal best is greater than the temporary suffering it takes to accomplish it.

What we’re learning this morning, here in 1 Peter, is that the cause of Christ in this world, and the glories that will follow, have value that far outweighs the cost of suffering that goes with them.

And so, as the Apostle Paul said, ‘it is through many hardships that we must enter the kingdom of God’.

Peter says it like this, here in our passage this morning: ‘To this [suffering] you were called’.

And he means, that if you came to believe in Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, don’t be unaware of the fact that you are called to go through suffering before entering into the fullness of the glory that forgiveness will deliver to you in the end. You were called to suffer first.

Now, don’t get me wrong here – it might sound like Peter’s saying, there are no tangible joys to be known and experienced now!

That’s emphatically not what he’s saying!

Almost every sentence in chapter 1 of the letter delivered some new benefit of faith in Christ to rejoice over, right?

Grace and peace. Mercy and hope. Inheritance and salvation. Peter himself said ‘Though you have not seen [Jesus], you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy!’

That’s now!

In fact, it is this very ‘inexpressible and glorious joy’ that is the fuel in the fires of our hearts so that we maintain that the value of Christ is of greater worth than the suffering Peter says here, we are called to endure.

So, yes, we have joy – abundant joy! Even in the face of this suffering we’re called to.

Peter says we’re called to suffer ‘because Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow in his steps’.

And it is very much both the suffering and the example of Christ that Peter unpacks for us in the remaining verses of this second chapter.

Our connection with Christ through our faith in him and his death for us, is so strong that it is inevitable that where he has gone, we will go also. That’s why Peter says, ‘To this [suffering] you were called, because Christ suffered for you’.

Think of it like this if it helps. That mother who suffered to bring her child into the world. Fast forward fifteen years or so. And into a conversation between mum and daughter.

Imagine daughter is going through some kind of suffering and seeking comfort and help from mum.

Mum might say something like this (amongst other things of course): ‘My darling, let me remind you that you came into this world throughsuffering. And as you’ve grown up, surely you have seen that my life has been attended by many hardships. I’m afraid that, because you are my daughter, you too will go through many hardships in this life. It is best that you know that now.’

And no doubt she would talk about all kinds of other aspects of life which serve to put those sufferings into perspective. Like any goodmum would.

But the pattern of her own life and the connection between her daughter and her, inevitably means that her pattern will be her daughter’s pattern also.

And what is more, the example of that mum – as she handled those hardships in her life – would, if that daughter looked closely, informher in own struggles in ways that would be precious, and helpful, and good.

Well, here Peter wants us to know that having been born again (have you been born again? Jesus said you must be born again!) – having been born again, through faith in Jesus, we are concretely connectedto Jesus who suffered for us and left us an example of how to live godly lives in the face of that suffering.

Now, I’m saying there are two things for us here. There’s sufferingand there’s the example of living in suffering.

Verses 22 & 23 give us the example of life in the face of suffering. From Jesus.

Verses 24 & 25 give us the suffering of Jesus itself – which he says was suffering for us.

And you can see the order they come in: example and then suffering.

That’s probably for a few reasons.

Jesus’s suffering obviously preceded his death so that might influence Peter’s order.

But also, Peter’s readership is suffering – now. So, placing examplefirst, and following it with the foundation for that suffering, does make sense.

So, since Peter put them in the order he did, I’m going to take them in that order too.

But not without saying something first.

We cannot afford to think that in our Christian journey, they come in this order to us. That is to say, we cannot think that living precedesnew life in Christ.

Think of that baby. What comes first? Birth or living life? Birth of course!

It’s the same for the believer.

So, we have to know that we can’t follow Jesus’ example unless we have first put our faith in his suffering on the cross for us personally - suffering that ‘bares away our sins’, like it says in verse 24.

If we get that order mixed up, we’ll believe that we can live a life that earns the work of Jesus for us. That’s not right.

Jesus died for us so that Christian life might flow out of Jesus’ cross work. Not the other way around!

And that leads me nicely to say, that neither of these aspects of Christ are dispensable either.

Let’s say, someone thought that you could have Christ’s suffering for you, but no Christian life that follows his example. Well, the Apostle James says that won’t work.

He says faith without the Christian life that flows out of what Jesus has done, would be a dead faith. In that case the cross of Jesus is powerless to change lives.

But then, on the flip side, let’s say that someone else said that you could follow Jesus’ example in life but avoid the commitment of faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins.

Well, no, because that would be moralism - like the Pharisees had in Jesus’ day.

So, we need both aspects of Christ here – his suffering and his example in the face of this suffering we’re called to.

So that, we know he has suffered for us – therefore we will suffer. And, that he has left us an example for how to live in the face of that suffering.

It's a case of getting the order right. And refusing to reject eitheraspect of Christ, as Peter is setting him forth for us this morning. So, keep that in mind.

Let me tell you, as we head to verses 22 & 23 for the example of Christ, that Isaiah chapter 53 fills Peter’s vision as he writes these closing verses of chapter 2.

Not just because he quotes from Isaiah 53 – like he does in verse 22 – but because all the other parts of what he says allude to aspects of what Isaiah said 700 years before Jesus came on the scene.

That’s purposeful on Peter’s part, I think.

Lest we forget who Jesus is, Peter’s going to remind us.

Jesus was God’s plan from eternity past to reconcile us to God.

He wasn’t a mere man – he was the God-man.

And he came in the flesh at the appointed time to die for sinners.

So, as Peter reminds us with Isaiah 53 of just who Jesus is, it looms large in our vision that God purposed that our salvation should come through the suffering not of a mere man, but God’s own precious sinless Son.

And therefore, we’re meant to think to ourselves: ‘if the cost of our salvation was the suffering of the sinless Son of God, might it not be the case that we who are very much sinful – whose sins were the reason Jesus had to come – might have to suffer also.

Not to do penance, but to do pattern – Christ’s pattern.

I think it would!

Now, just as Isaiah 53 anticipated: Jesus did go through terrible suffering on the way to the cross; on the cross itself; and right up to his final breath on the cross.

In the garden of Gethsemane, it was a large detachment of armedsoldiers that came to arrest him though he had done nothing wrong.

But when Peter raised his sword and lopped off the ear of the servant of the high priest, Jesus rebuked Peter for that, and healed his opponent.

And when he was under trial, Matthew tells us he gave no answer to the accusations brought against him. Such that, the governor, Pilate, was ‘greatly amazed’.

The testimony of the gospels accords with the prophesy of Isaiah: that Jesus committed no sin that he should be accused of anything! No deceit was found in his mouth that warranted all the suffering that followed.

And yet, Luke tells us that as he hung on the cross and insults were being hurled at him, though he could have retaliated with the kind of divine power that would have blown them all away with a single word, yet he didn’t make any threats.

This is what Luke says that Jesus actually said, ‘Father, forgive themfor they do not know what they do’.

Instead of threats, Peter says, Jesus entrusted himself into the hands of him who judges justly. Luke records Jesus saying, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit’.

So, here’s Jesus facing the most unjust suffering anybody has everfaced. Wrongly arrested. Wrongly accused. Wrongly condemned. Wrongly executed.

It would be terrible injustice even for an imperfect human being. But Jesus was the sinless creator of the world. There was never, therefore, a greater injustice perpetrated than this injustice. And yetit happened.

Let me just remind you what typically happened when people mistreated God like this in the past.

In Noah’s day God wiped out the entire inhabitants of the earth except for eight souls, with a global flood. In Abraham’s day he wiped out two whole cities with fire and sulphur from the heavens.

In David’s day he wiped out seventy thousand people with plague.

And that’s not to mention the plagues of Egypt, or the onslaught of Assyria, and other besides, which also came as judgments from God for the rebellion of the people.

I’m telling you this, to give you an idea of the power and right Jesus possessed in the face of the injustices the people of his day perpetrated against him.

But he didn’t open his mouth. He didn’t retaliate. He didn’t threaten. He entrusted his life into the hands of his Father who is just, and the judge of the whole earth.

Did he get vindication there and then? No, he did not. Has he received full vindication even now? No, he has not. In part yes, but not in full.Not until every last person is either paying for their rebellion themselves in hell. Or has come to depend on him to pay that price for them.

Here's THE example then, that Peter has in mind.

When we face suffering for doing good as Christians, Jesus is our example to follow. No retaliation. No threats. Just steadfast hope in the just judge of all the earth who will do right.

Into his hands we can commit our lives.

This is the pattern God wants us to follow.

Specifically, because, when we follow it, it reflects Jesus’ approach to suffering.

His approach looks nothing like the world! And neither will ours! And that commends him!

That’s the point!

In this way, people look up and take note of Jesus.

Let me say a word about being trampled on.

Jesus faced a lot of opposition long before he ever got to the Garden of Gethsemane. All of it unjust.

But none of it resulted in his early arrest, and trial and execution. Why?

Well, because Jesus wasn’t a walk-over.

He spoke boldly – like when he pronounced the woes on the pharisees.

He stepped carefully – like when he answered the trap about paying taxes to Caesar.

He was wise about where he went at times – like when he withdrew from another crowd that wanted to arrest him.

He won people over with kindness – like when he dispersed the crowd about to stone the woman caught in adultery.

Jesus’ example is not that of a weak, purposeless, doormat-like submission.

What it is: is wise, purposeful, sinless submission to suffering when it inevitably came his way.

In all Jesus’ interaction with opposition, he didn’t sin in his responses. He didn’t act out of fear. He didn’t act for self-preservation.

What was always uppermost in his mind was the honour of his Father and the mission on which he had come.

And that example should certainly inform our responses also. Our heavenly Father is worthy of this same honour from us. And we have a life-mission from God also.

Now Peter, turning his focus to the suffering that Jesus endured for us, says, ‘He, himself, bore our sins in his body on the cross’.

In other words, it was this very man – this sinless Son of God – and none other than he himself - who bore our sins in his own body.

It is staggering that it was he who was so unjustly treated by sinners, who himself, died for sinners!

Surely, having been treated so badly by sinners, he would want nothing to do with sinners at all.

But no. Jesus pressed in and laid down his own life for sinners – the very kind who pursued him onto the cross and all the way to a hideous death.

The very phrase, ‘in his body’ helps us to identify with the suffering he went through, because Peter knew, and we know, full well, that Jesus’ suffering was not limited to his body.

It was experienced in both, his body and his soul.

God’s wrath fell on Jesus that day, such that he could cry out in anguish of soul, ‘my God, my God why have you forsaken me’. That’s spiritualagony.

Consider this, the physical suffering – in his body – Jesus endured, was on account of Judas, and the Jewish leaders, and Pilate and others, for absolutely no sin found in him.

The suffering Jesus endured in his spirit, was on account of God’swrath falling on him for sin that was found in him! Not his sin though. Our sin!

Look at what Peter says. ‘he himself, bore our sins in his body’.

The point is that the wrath of God could not have been satisfied for uswithout the shedding of blood – blood from the body!

Therefore, Jesus became a sacrifice of atonement on our behalf, bearing our sins in his body, whereupon the wrath of God fell on him, and not on us.

Never has there been a greater sacrifice, more accompanied by suffering, than this one that Jesus endured.

And though we are called to readiness to sacrifice our reputation and our comforts for the cause of Christ. It is not that our sacrifice is forour sins, but that his alone was.

And since he did that for us, we have undergone a transformativeexperience resulting in new life.

Peter says that Christ bore our sins ‘so that’ – ‘for this purpose’. ‘That we might die to sins and live for righteousness’.

This is crucial for all of us to understand. Our deliverance through Jesus’ death on the cross caused us to die with him – a death to our sins.

And his resurrection from the dead caused us to come into new life with him – a resurrection to righteousness.

Righteousness is the very thing Peter is calling us to when we face unjust suffering. He is not calling us to vindication, or to justice.

He is calling us to live in line with the righteousness that trusts in the justice God. And which doesn’t return evil for evil.

Which blesses our enemies and doesn’t curse them.

In other words, we’re to live according to what Jesus has made us.

Sin should no longer have dominion.

Righteousness must hold sway, now. And we must walk according to it, and not according to our old sinful inclinations.

Jesus’ cross work accomplished that transformation. And Peter calls us to live out that transformation day by day.

Another way of saying ‘dead to sins and alive to righteousness’ is to say, ‘we’ve been healed’.

And again, borrowing from Isaiah, Peter says, ‘by Jesus’ wounds we have been healed’.

Spiritually speaking we were like Isaiah’s description in chapter 1, from the soles of our feet to the tops of our heads there was no soundness – only wounds, and welts and open sores.

But by Jesus’ wounds, and welts and open sores – bourn in his body– we have been spiritually healed.

We have been returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls (v.25).

We were like sheep going astray, Peter says, but then Jesus came in like a mighty flood, and restored us to himself.

And he claims, for himself, the title of Shepherd – where we are the sheep – and the title of Overseer.

Sheep don’t know where to go or what to do, do they? But a shepherd cares for the sheep and leads them where they need to go for their good.

Our shepherd, Jesus, says to us - his sheep - ‘I’ll lead you into suffering for my name’s sake, because that’s what will be good for you’.

Be assured of this, brothers and sisters, there are all kinds of good for our souls that Jesus has got planned to come through Christian suffering.

Which sheep doesn’t trust it’s shepherd? None. They all follow his lead.

And he brings them through the boggy lowlands. And he brings them past the perilous cliff edges. And he brings them over the mountain passes. Until finally, he brings them safely into the green pastures.

Those green pastures are on the other side of this life brothers and sisters, but who of us wouldn’t trust him to lead us there?

That means going where he calls us to go.

Even, the suffering of long journeys, and narrow paths, and mountain passes.

But he is not only a Shepherd; he is our Overseer too. Overseer implies one who governs. Jesus governs us, as well as cares for us.

In his shepherding, he has plans to do us good even in the suffering.

In his overseeing, he has plans to accomplish other things by our suffering, the likes of which he calls us to obedience in.

We read in Hebrews, ‘My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as a son’.

In your struggle against sin - in the face of suffering - don’t fail to see Jesus. He is the overseer of your soul. He will chasten us on, because he loves us so.

And so, Peter hasn’t failed to show us the goodness of all that Jesus is for us, as the power, and the pattern, and the protector of our walk here below.

Thanks be to God for that!

We have been called to this suffering but not left alone in it.

We have been shown the power to endure it. We have been shown the pattern to follow in it. And we have been shown the protector who leads us through it – tenderly and lovingly, and also firmly, where needed.

Hear his word to us this morning. Seek to make this tough Christian life, a walk in the power of all that the cross has accomplished for us.

Let it be in the pattern of our forerunner Jesus.

And let it be under the protectorate of our chief Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ.