Sermon Transcript
Well, why don’t you take your Bible out with us, and we’re going to be looking at 1 Peter chapter 2 this morning. We’ve been in a series in Peter, and this is actually our 10th message into the series. A number of years ago, I read this book, In His Steps. Maybe you’ve read the book, or at least heard about the book, or seen the book. Actually, you’ve had plenty of time to read it.
It was published in 1896. So, you know, if you haven’t come across it, it sold 60 million copies, and the message that’s found in this book really is wrapped up in a question. Charles Sheldon, the author of the book, says that it really comes down to a question that we need to ask all of ourselves, a question that can basically sums up the Christian life: What would Jesus do? 4 words: What would Jesus do? And you may have seen or heard those words through a bracelet.
Bracelet, the WWJD bracelet, which is just a reminder to us of those 4 words and that question. Well, that question or that bracelet actually came out of this passage we’re going to look at this morning, 1 Peter 2:21-25. This is what the passage says, to this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. 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. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and overseer of your souls. Now I think that the idea of what’s behind this passage is pretty straightforward.
It’s basically, as you can see there, follow Jesus’ steps, or imitate Christ. Imitate Christ. The idea is that we ought to live a life of imitation to our Savior Jesus Christ. Follow his example. I don’t know what your first thought when you hear that.
It’s probably, I don’t know if I can do that. You know, that’s way beyond the life that I can live to think that I could think like Christ thought and, you know, do things like that He did and say things like that He said. That sounds pretty challenging. Or maybe at the same time it might sound, okay, so that just simplifies my life if I just do what it was that Jesus did and kind of bring that into my life now. But there’s a whole factor here that I think oftentimes is left out when we talk about WWJD, and that is the suffering factor, the hardship factor that often is connected to living a life for Christ.
Because actually the context that’s found here in 1 Peter chapter 2 is that Peter is writing to a group of persecuted believers, people who’ve lost their homes, they’ve lost their possessions, they’ve lost loved ones. They aren’t enjoying freedom like they used to and peace, a lack of peace, and so many other things that they had lost. And so here they are in the midst of hardship, suffering, experiencing hopes for a better life, but that better life might not come. I mean, it doesn’t look like that in the world that they were living in. Now, you could probably identify with this in some ways where we at times find ourselves in circumstances where we would just like some kind of relief, you know, divine intervention.
A big answer to prayer financially, a big answer to prayer relationally. Even a vacation would be okay, you know, just a summer vacation. I could just, you know, get out of here and get out from under the stress and the pressures and expectation and all of that stuff. What we do know is that suffering is a part of life. It comes in many shapes and sizes, and when it comes, it can make our lives miserable, absolutely miserable.
And some of that is actually connected to unfair or unkind treatment that might come our way. So you could be the victim of verbal or physical abuse. You could know the pain of somebody maligning you or maligning your character or treating you like, you know, you’re less than human, like you’re dirt, berating you, condemning you, not really appreciating what you’re trying to do for them, treat you like a slave. All of the factors that these people are living through, you can experience some of that. We can experience some of that to some degree.
A week ago, Bernice and I were standing in the San Diego airport, and we were talking to a pilot who just happened to be standing there. It actually turned out to be about a 20-minute-long conversation. It was really fun to just kind of get his thoughts about flying and that sort of thing. And at one point in this conversation, we asked him a little bit about, you know, flight attendants and how some passengers treat flight attendants like they’re dirt, you know, from time to time. Flight attendants are treated like nobody’s— nobody whose job, you know, the only job they have is to serve pretzels and drinks, and, you know, that’s about it.
And occasionally, as you’re following reports about flight attendants, like you might have seen the news last night, I don’t know if you saw that there was an incident on an American Airlines flight here yesterday where a flight attendant refused to serve one of the passengers more beer. I guess the guy had already had enough beer, and so the flight attendant said, we’re not gonna give you any more, when he wanted more, and a whole thing came out of that, and they had to bring, you know, the FBI and so forth onto the plane after they landed and stuff. But anyway, so here you have these flight attendants that oftentimes have to put up with unruly passengers, and from time to time you hear of a flight attendant that just basically says enough is enough. You know, they reach the end of their emotional rope, they can’t take it any longer, they don’t want to deal with another rude passenger. And so they do something about it, something like what Steven Slater did.
I don’t know if you remember this report back in 2010 where Steven Slater, a flight attendant with JetBlue, decided that he just had it. So at the end of the flight, he got on the PA system and he declared with a string of profanities that he was done. And then he grabbed 2 beers off of the service cart, he activated the emergency chute, and he slid down onto the tarmac and into the annals of history, you know. So you could kind of understand that at some point. And in the aftermath of that, after that, there were some other flight attendants that chimed in and said, you know what, Steven lived my fantasy.
I mean, that’s like my dream. That’s what I like to do at the end of some of my flights too, you know. You just get tired of taking it on the chin, and so you just, you know, take it out in the best way that you know how. Of course, the problem is, is that if you decide to take that course of action after you’ve been treated unfairly and unjustly and unlovingly and all the rest of that, if you take that course of action, it’s going to really mess up your career path, for one, but also it’s not going to be toward your well-being. And if we’re concerned about, you know, our well-being, then this example that’s found here in 1 Peter chapter 2 is so appropriate for us because Jesus Christ, in the midst of unfair unloving, you know, unkind treatment shows us how to respond in a way that’s going to ultimately be best.
So Peter writes about that and he says, to this you were called, verse 21. The this that we got to connect this to is what Dan helped us understand last week as he was taking us through the passage that’s previous to this where in fact it talks about slavery and it talks about unjust suffering and matters like that where you’re in harsh circumstances. So the this that he is setting this into context, that this is unjust suffering, unjust suffering like the suffering that Jesus went through. And Peter says in verse 21 that when we go through that kind of suffering, we should be following Jesus’ example. And you might want to just note that the word example here actually is a word that means pattern.
It’s the idea of tracing a pattern or an image. So you want to, you know, copy the image or duplicate the image. Used to be the only way you could do this was with a pencil, you know, tracing paper, that sort of thing. Well, the picture here is that when suffering comes, especially unjust suffering, we want to learn to respond like Jesus did. So we want to trace his example.
We want to replicate or duplicate his response. We want our response to be like his response and Furthermore, he says in verse 21, we want to follow in his steps. And literally the idea here is to follow in his tracks or in his footprints like a child would follow a father’s footprints or a mother’s footprints. To follow in Jesus’ steps would be to reproduce his steps or to repeat his steps. And so Peter’s writing about that, and it’s interesting that he would write about that because Peter as an apostle had an up-close personal look at Jesus’ life and the unjust suffering that he went through.
So if you go back into the early days of Jesus’ ministry, Jesus was, as it says in this passage here, he was insulted, he was rejected, he was slandered, he was treated harshly, he was demeaned. And in the latter days of his life, Jesus was unfairly arrested. He was unfairly tried. He was deserted by his followers. By the way, one of those followers was Peter, the guy who was writing these actual words.
He was deserted. He was— Jesus was falsely accused. He was beaten and mocked and flogged and wrongly and unmercifully crucified. He experienced excruciating pain. Why did Jesus experience all of that?
Because of who he claimed to be, because of what he taught. And because of what he did. So faith matters. And these believers that Peter is writing to have stood up for the faith. They’ve faithfully followed the Lord’s example.
And in the midst of that suffering with, you know, under Nero, who was persecuting Christians even to the degree he was placing them in the Colosseum and, you know, wild animals were let loose who would would kill these Christians. I mean, in the midst of that kind of suffering, Peter wants them to understand that there is the best way, there is the best way to respond to unjust suffering. And that is to replicate, to duplicate Jesus Christ. Now, when we think about the suffering that we experience here in the Bay Area, we don’t experience suffering, fortunately, like, you know, in the rest of the world, but— or unfortunately, however you want to put it. But the idea is, is that there’s going to be suffering.
Now, to some degree, you could probably identify with this passage because of some unjust or unfair treatment you’ve gone through. I don’t know how it’s going to connect with you. All I know is that we really need to pay attention to what Jesus did and seek to replicate that in his life. And what did he— how did he respond? Well, verse 22 says he committed no sin.
He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth. When they hurled their insults at him, he didn’t retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. A couple things to notice: when Jesus suffered unjustly, he said no to sin.
And there’s one thing that we can do when we suffer unjustly. We could say no to sin. You say, what kinds of sin? Well, first of all, there’s the sin of deceit, and then there’s the sin of retaliation, and then there’s the sin of threats. Do you see that there in the passage?
What’s deceit? Well, there was no deceit found in Jesus’ mouth. Deceit is lying. Deceit is a fabrication of the truth. It’s It’s trying to find a way out of the situation so that, you know, I don’t have to take any pain in the situation.
Jesus didn’t use fraud. He didn’t use deception as a way out of the circumstances that hit him. He didn’t do— you remember Abraham? You remember how Abraham told his wife Sarah to lie? And do you remember why he told his wife twice to lie?
It was because he was facing a potential, you know, live-or-die situation. And he wanted to live, and so he told his wife to lie twice. Well, Jesus is in a, you know, life-or-death situation. He was standing before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court of the day, 70 members. He stood before the Sanhedrin.
His life was on the line, and the high priest asked him this question. He asked him who he was. He actually said, if Jesus was— are you the Messiah? Are you the Blessed One? The high priest said to Jesus.
And you remember Jesus’ answer? He didn’t, you know, resort to deception or lying or anything like that. He just flat out said, yes, I am. He didn’t shrink back from the truth. He didn’t hold back from the truth.
He didn’t say what he was. I mean, he just came right out and said what it was that needed to be said in that moment in time. And I think to myself sometimes, you know, we find ourselves in situations where our faith perhaps is being questioned, and we can easily deceive others into thinking, well, it’s not that big of a deal for us. I had a plane conversation with a guy last Sunday as we were flying back from San Diego, and he was telling me a little bit about his family because I’d asked about his trip and why he was on this trip. And he said that he was visiting with his mother who has Alzheimer’s and wanted to spend some time with her.
And so I asked him more about his family and came to find out that he’s had 3 deaths in his family. And so I said to him, you know, in the aftermath of these deaths, What’s your belief about the afterlife? Just— he didn’t know who I was. I didn’t know who he was. I just— why not ask him about a matter that’s pretty much on his mind right now?
You know what he said? He said, well, I’m a Christian, and I believe there is an afterlife. I believe that my parents are in heaven right now. I loved hearing that response, because, see, this guy didn’t know I was a pastor. He didn’t know I was a Christian.
He just came right out forthright without any hesitation, without any cowering, straight up and said, I’m a Christian. I’m a Christ follower. He had no idea how I was going to respond. No deception. Jesus didn’t give in to the sin of deceit.
He didn’t give in to the sin of retaliation. What’s retaliation? It’s hurling insults back at somebody who has insulted you. You see that in verse 23. Jesus didn’t abuse his abusers with insult.
He didn’t throw hard harsh words back at them after he was called things like a Samaritan, a glutton, a blasphemer. People said he was demon-possessed, that he was one with Satan, that he was a deceiver, that he was a false teacher. You know, the usual response when people insult us is what? It’s to insult them like they have insulted us. But Jesus didn’t do that.
You ever been insulted? I mean, in big or, you know, Small ways. You ever been made to feel stupid or, you know, somebody who has nothing to offer? You ever had somebody throw rocks at you and then you picked the rocks up and you threw them right back at them? Or you ever sent an unkind email and the first thing you did was push the email right back to them with some unkind words on your part, or a text message or whatever it was?
Jesus didn’t do that. He didn’t respond in kind. And then he also did not sin by giving in to threats, to threats. When he suffered, it says he made no threats, which is amazing, because Jesus could have easily made a bunch of threats like, you know, go ahead, make my day. Go ahead.
Yeah, let’s see what happens here. Take your best shot. Believe me, it’s going to be the last shot that you ever get. Or he could have said, just wait one day. You know what?
You’re going to pay for this. When he was spit in the face, When he was struck, when he was beaten with a reed, when he was crowned with thorns, scourged, when he was forced to carry his cross, and then he was crucified, he didn’t threaten them and say, you know what, watch, fire is going to come down out of heaven right now and consume you. But what did he do? He remained silent. There were no threats.
He just responded in a loving, gracious, merciful way to these people who did not deserve it. You know, if you think about that, it kinda gets you thinking about, you know, how unlike Jesus we are in our response when people hurt us or people abuse us or whatever it is, the circumstance that comes our way. In fact, in a lot of ways, we We learn to respond how we respond now. We learn to respond way back in childhood, you know, when if you had siblings— I have siblings, I don’t know if you have siblings, but, you know, if you have siblings, then you kind of learn that a part of, you know, holding your ground and not sharing your toys involves threats and retaliation and lying. I mean, you know, so that when you’re pushed or shoved or knocked over or whatever it is, and, and you, you know, you’re screaming out, Mom, you know, and Mom comes in, uh, if you’re the one who’s pushed the, the brother or sister and your mother asks, you know, so who did this, the response usually is, I don’t know.
I mean, you know, what are you looking at me for? I mean, I didn’t, I didn’t do this. There’s the first lie. And you, however, are the one responsible for the retaliation that, you know, went on. But, you know, you don’t want to own up to that.
And as soon as mom leaves with whatever answer she ended up with, then you turn to your brother or sister and say, if you ever do that again, you’re dead. You know, that kind of thing. So we can go all the way back really to our childhood where this was us. It’s just retaliation and lies and threats, that’s just our most natural course of action. But Jesus didn’t take that course of action.
What was his action? It was verse 23. Instead— it was the way of the instead— instead he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. Instead, in the midst of unfair treatment, in the midst of this suffering that he went through, he took the instead route. He entrusted his himself to God who judges justly.
He took the high road. He didn’t take the low road. He just knew that God was going to ultimately make things right. He didn’t try to change the situation. He just took that course of action.
Now, when I say he didn’t try to change the situation, you may think, okay, Dave, are you saying we don’t try to change the situation? That’s not what I’m saying at all. If there’s something that you can do to make this wrong situation right, then take that course of action. But the immediate response, the immediate response to whatever the situation is, should be what Jesus did, which is to entrust our circumstances to God and entrust judgment and justice ultimately to God. That’s the most important response.
You see, that’s the response of a person who’s being changed by the gospel, so that I don’t any longer have a need to retaliate. I don’t have a need any longer to threaten, and I don’t need to deceive. But I can entrust my situation to God for ultimately the greater good. Lord, you take this situation. I’ll do what I can, but you take this situation and you turn it into The greater good.
You know, really, on Memorial Day, that’s kind of what this weekend is all about remembering, isn’t it? It’s all about remembering those who have died in the armed forces for the greater good. And so we honor them and we thank them for their service, for their willingness to suffer and die if necessary for the greater good, that we might enjoy this freedom and liberty and life and the pursuit of happiness. If you enlist in the Marine Corps, the path of serving for the greater good begins when you arrive by bus at Recruit Depot at Parris Island or in San Diego. And as soon as you disembark the bus, you take your first step toward becoming a Marine by doing something that thousands of Marines have done before you came to be at this location where your training’s going to begin.
You disembark the bus and you stand on some yellow footprints. Those yellow footprints are significant. You know why? Because they are the initial first step of a recruit’s training. Once you’re standing on those yellow footprints, the whole thing begins.
As you stand there, they’re going to teach you, first of all, how to stand, and then a number of other things are going to be shared with you, or they’re just shouted or whatever at that point. And then you’re going to be told this: you have just taken the first step toward becoming a member of the world’s finest fighting force, the United States Marine Corps. In other words, what they’re gonna tell you Is that from this day on, as you take these steps, from this day on, your lives are going to be different. You’re going to live differently. You’re going to conduct yourself differently.
And whatever that all may entail, it’s all necessary— listen— for the greater good, for the greater good. And it was for the greater good that Jesus responded to the suffering in the way that he did. Just think of it. Had he not said no to retaliation, had he not said no to deception, had he not said no to threats, there would be no gospel.
If he would have said, I’m not going to take this, there would be no gospel. If he had put his well-being in front of the gospel’s well-being, there would not be a gospel. But instead, he entrusted his circumstances, his wrongful circumstances, to the God who is just. It was all he could do other than to just say, I’m done. Mission over.
We’re not going through with it. But he went through with the mission, the life-saving mission, and that life-saving gospel mission was accomplished. And that’s what Peter’s trying to say here, is that whatever circumstances come your way, there’s a gospel way to respond. For the sake of the gospel, take that response. Walk in Jesus’ steps.
And you do that initially by saying no to sin. Or as Dan helped us see last week, it’s in those circumstances where you find yourself in the midst of unjust suffering where you serve and you give and you extend a hand of kindness and you sacrifice for the cause of Christ. Say no to sin for the sake of the gospel. Well, then he says, He Himself, verse 24, bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.
For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. Here you have a second way that we should be facing unjust suffering, a second way that Jesus did. The first is to say no to sin for the sake of the gospel. The second is to say no— or excuse me, is to say yes to righteousness. You see it there in verse 24?
We’re to say no to sins, we’re to die to sins, but then we’re to live for righteousness like Jesus lived for righteousness. Now, what does that mean? You’ve probably heard the word righteous. Live a righteous life, you know, seek out righteousness. What does that mean?
Well, simple definition: righteousness is knowing what’s right and doing what’s right no matter what. Simple definition of righteousness. So, the definition actually, of course, connects with God and his plan for our lives. So, we want to know what’s right according to God, and we want to do what’s right according to God. And for Jesus, righteousness meant that he would bear our sins.
Verse 24, he himself bore our sins. So, he was the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. He took on himself the sins of the world, and so, like a sacrificial lamb would be lifted up by the priest and then carried up this ramp, 4 and a half feet up to a brazen altar, and then put this lamb on this altar, and the lamb then would be sacrificed or bear or pay for or atone for the sins of the people. He says here that Jesus was lifted up. He was lifted up in his body on a tree, a cross.
He, as the Lamb of God, was lifted up and he paid for our sins. His body was sacrificed, and through his death there is atonement for our sins. There is forgiveness for our sins. The righteous died for us unrighteous people. The sinless one died for us sinful people.
The just for the unjust. And why did Jesus do that? Do you see it there in verse 24? Why did he die? Why was he wounded?
He died so that we can be— what’s the word? Healed. He died so we can be healed. Now, what kind of healing is he talking about here? Because there’s nothing actually in the context that talks about any kind of physical healing.
That’s really not what’s in focus. But the healing that he died for is the healing of our souls. It’s not that God doesn’t care about our physical. Oftentimes God intervenes and heals us physically, but the greater healing, the greatest healing is the healing spiritually, the healing of our souls. That’s the part of the person that matters most, and that’s the part that’s in focus here.
It’s the— as 1 Peter 1:9 says, it’s the salvation of our souls. Now this is interesting. We’ve probably since childhood thought about, or at least talked about this soul matter in some capacity. In fact, some of us ever since childhood prayed that little childhood prayer, you know, that little kid prayer? Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Did you pray that prayer? Did you ever think about, what in the world am I praying this prayer for? I mean, this seems like morbid, you know? Like, why am I praying this right before I go to sleep?
If I should die before— you know, what am I thinking? Well, what was I thinking, actually, You know, pray a prayer about my soul? Well, actually, it comes into focus here in 1 Peter 2:25. You were like sheep going astray, but now you’ve returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your— what? Of your souls.
You’ve returned to the greatest Shepherd, to the greatest Overseer, this Good Shepherd, this one who cares about your soul, that your soul is in his hands. What better place for your soul to be than in the hands of the Shepherd? Your soul is in the hands of the overseer, the guardian who is constantly watching out for you, is concerned about your well-being, wants your best interest— or excuse me, has your best interest at heart. Well, knowing that then should be more than enough reason for us, as it says in verse 25, as sheep who maybe have gone astray to return. We can return to the ultimate shepherd and the ultimate guardian, and we return to this ultimate shepherd and guardian by saying yes to righteousness, by saying yes to God’s ways instead of my ways.
Because the Great Physician— when we say yes to the Great Physician, we are saying yes to the best doctor ever. You know, you may love your primary care doctor, you may have some specialists that you absolutely love. I have some doctors like that that I just am so grateful for. But those doctors can’t do what only Jesus can do. And what is it that Jesus can do?
Do you see it there? He can care for our soul. He can care for that part of our being that we don’t see, but it’s there, that part of our soul that’s been wounded. And the one that was wounded, verse 24, is able to care for our wounded souls. He’s able to come in and do intervention on that wounded feeling that you have and desire and motivation and inner craving and longing, that wounded propensity, that lust that you struggle with, that appetite, that affection, those feelings that you just can’t get control of, those passions, all of that.
He can work on all of those areas of our life. He could give us new thoughts. He could relieve guilt and shame. He can give us a new conscience and new commitments. He can give us a new life.
And really, David was reminded of that when he wrote in Psalm 23 these words: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul, he guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Name’s sake. Why should I be saying yes to righteousness?
Because this is the path to soul restoration. See, the Lord wants to bring our souls back to a place of full health, and that means a new diet. You say, what’s the new diet? It’s a new way of living. It’s right living.
It’s righteous living. See, soul health is not found in the path of sin. It’s found in the path of righteousness. Which is why God always points us to the path of righteousness instead of the path of sin. You ever, you know, benefited by a new diet?
Probably so. Well, this is the ultimate diet that we see here. It’s more important than, you know, changing your order at Outback Steakhouse, if you love that place, or, you know, giving up that nightly ice cream splurge. This diet is a soul-care diet, a diet that is for the part of our person that we will have forever. And the Lord has concern about this part of our person that we’re going to have forever.
He has concern about this part even right now, because this part is either going to give us life every day or it’s going to take life away from us every day. Why should I be saying yes to righteousness? Well, for the sake of my soul. For the sake of my soul.
Some of us could look back in our life like me. I could look back to a conversation I had with a doctor where the doctor said, hey Dave, you got to change your diet, you got to change your exercise, because he was concerned about my well-being, my physical well-being. So I’ve tried to work with that over the years.
Well, here’s God, and maybe we’ve never landed— this has maybe never landed before. Here’s God saying, I’m concerned about your soul, that part of you that’s going to go on for all eternity.
And that’s why you must say yes to righteousness. It’s not just all about the outer life, it’s about the inner life, the soul, that part of you that has these secret thoughts and these secret hopes and these secret dreams, that part of you that’s not visible, but it is very real. It’s either life-giving It’s life-giving, hopefully. It’s not life-taking. Hopefully it’s flourishing and it’s not dying.
Dallas Willard said it this way, if your soul is healthy, no external circumstance can destroy your life.
If your soul is unhealthy, no external circumstance can redeem your life.
See, I don’t know what the unjust circumstance that you’re faced with, or the unfair, unkind, unloving thing that’s hit you recently, or maybe sometime in the past, the worst thing that we can do when that comes our way is to give in to bitterness. And bitterness oftentimes is the result of retaliation. It’s the result of threats. It’s the result of not letting it go. The best thing that we can do is say no to sin and say yes to righteousness, so that whatever good or bad circumstance come our way, our soul is going to fare well.
And by the way, as this passage just showed us, not just for our soul’s sake, but even more than that, for the Lord’s sake. Psalm 23:3 again where it says, he restores my soul. He guides me in the path of righteousness— get this one— for his name’s sake.
He guides me in the path of righteousness, not just for me. But for his name’s sake, for the well-being of God’s name, so that the work that God wants to do through you and the unjust situation that you find yourself in right now, so that, that his name will ultimately be glorified, so that something wonderful will happen through your life that will proclaim the gospel to the world. Horatio Spafford knew hardship. He invested most of his wealth in real estate, but in the Chicago Fire of 1871, he lost everything in real estate. He even lost his home.
In 1873, 2 years later, he put his wife and 4 daughters on a ship headed to England, and he stayed behind to work on his business. A few days after they departed, he received a telegram from his wife. It was a short telegram. It just simply said this: Saved alone, What shall I do?
There had been a shipwreck and all 4 of his daughters had died.
So Horatio quickly boarded another ship to England, and as it passed the spot where his daughters had drowned, he wrote these words: When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul.
See, that’s to say God can make our souls all right even when everything else in the world is all wrong.
Is he? This passage is written to people who are in the midst of all kinds of pain, trying to get through it the best way that they know how. And Peter is saying, there is an example, there is a pattern that has been left for you. And this pattern, this example is is one that you got to duplicate. You got to replicate in the situation that you’re living in right now.
And the best thing that you could do for the gospel and the best thing you could do for your soul is not to resort to deceit. It’s not to resort to retaliation. It’s not to resort to threats. It’s to entrust your circumstance to the Lord, entrust your circumstance to the one who can do something about it. For the sake of the gospel and for the sake of your soul and for the sake of God’s name.
Let’s pray. Lord, thank you as we look at a passage like this that the application is not just for people who are living under Nero, but it’s for people like us today who are still living in a world that’s filled with suffering and hardship. There just are so many things that happen in life that are not right.
But even in the midst of all of that, our souls can experience a miraculous work that causes us to be able to endure the hardship that we face with hope knowing that you are there with us and there is going to be a day where even if it’s never made right here, you will make it right. And so may we be people who live with kindness, mercy, love. May we be people who don’t give up But persevere through the challenges that we’re faced with. May we be strong in faith. May people see the faith in us.
And ultimately, Lord, may it be for your name. May it be for your honor and your glory, for your good. We pray this in your name. Amen.
