Following Jesus in Submission

Scripture Reading

Will you please turn in your Bibles with me to 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 2. And this morning we'll be looking at 1 Peter 2, verse 18 through 25. You find 1 Peter chapter 25, you're in trouble. Don't read that Bible. 1 Peter chapter 2, verses 18 through 25. You'll find that on page 1077 if you're using the provided New King James Pew Bibles. Brothers and sisters, hear now God's perfect word.

For servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. For this is commendable, if because of conscience towards God, one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.

For to this end you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow His footsteps, who committed no sin, Nor was any deceit found in his mouth. And when he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously. Who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness. by whose stripes you were healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.

Prayer for Illumination

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let's pray. Father, we have read your word, and we know that it's true perfectly. And so, Father, we pray now that as we come to the time to hear your word preached, Lord, we do pray that your spirit would work in our hearts. Lord, we pray that you would give us hearts to believe. Lord, this is a passage that our enemy, the enemy of our soul, would love to do nothing more than to harden our hearts against your word here. And so Father, we pray that you might do an effectual work, not letting your word return void, but open our eyes. Let us see, let us believe, let us taste and live. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Sermon

We come to this passage today, and I just need to tell you we're going to talk about something that's really, really, really difficult and politically sensitive, especially given our nature's past, because verse 18 kind of smooths things out a little bit. But the first word of verse 18 is slaves. Household, domestic slaves. That's who this passage is talking about.

As we come to this passage, there was a guy that I was evangelizing, and to this man's credit, he was reading the New Testament. He was reading through vast parts of the Bible together. And it was at this part of the Scriptures, when he got to the household codes, that he got to slaves and he thought, hold on, this doesn't say anything about revolting or condemning slavery categorically. So I talked with him and I wrestled through that with him that you're right.

You're right, it doesn't say that. Now as we'll talk about, there's things that are taught in the New Testament that eventually unraveled slavery in the Christian West. But in his mind, no, if it wasn't a categorical rejection of all things slavery, then it was inherently evil and he wanted nothing to do with Christianity anymore.

And so when I come to this passage with you this morning, I have no, illusion or disillusion that somehow this indeed could be a passage that could make you stumble and struggle if we don't handle it carefully. I'm going to ask you to deal with this passage with patience and to also deal with this passage pleading that the Holy Spirit would give us clarity on what does this mean to the people back then and how does it apply to our lives today. Because the theme of this passage is very clear. This whole section that we've been looking at, starting at verse 13, is about being submissive.

Last week, we looked at being submissive to governors, supreme authorities, for the Lord's sake. And now the idea of submissiveness moves on into what about household slaves? Again, we might find this kind of odd that the Bible is talking about slaves being obedient, but you need to understand that in Rome, especially on the Italian peninsula, up to 30% of the population at that time were slaves. So to not talk to slaves about how they're to live their Christian faith would have been a horrible miscarriage of pastoral care.

People would have been wondering, well what about me? You've talked to husbands, you've talked to wives, you've talked to citizens, but you haven't talked to me. I'm not a citizen. Because I'm a slave. What do I do? How do I behave? How do I live out my Christian faith? And this is what Peter is talking to. And so the main idea of this passage is that Christians are called to submit to authority and endure even unjust suffering. Following Christ's example. So how do we get there? Well, first, we need to understand slavery in the context of 1 Peter. Look with me again at verse 18.

Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. The word here for servants, like I said, is you might, some of your translations might even call it slaves or household slaves. Ikati is the Greek, and this is the idea that, see, there were different types of slaves in the Roman Empire.

There were slaves, the vast majority of slaves were those who worked, if they were this unfortunate, they would have been working in the mines, or as gladiators, and death was pretty certain. But the major amount were field workers. People who worked out in the ag land. It was cheap labor, in a sense, cheap. But not all slaves were out in the field or down in the mines. Many slaves were domestic. Meaning that they were within the household themselves. They weren't part of the family. But yet in Rome, these slaves were given a vast majority of different jobs. This category of slaves here in verse 18, Icithi, are slaves who are literally interweaved into the daily life of the family.

They could be clothing makers, nurses, midwives, working in the kitchen, clerks, secretaries, readers. They would take the children to school and bring the children home from school. They would even be employed as sculptors and painters, potters, doctors and even managers.

See, in ancient Rome, if you were a slave, that did not necessarily mean that you were looked down upon in your ability to learn or to do things. They didn't think that you were necessarily dumb or incapable, but that for some reason or another, you were made a slave and so were of a lower status. But here's the thing. Sometimes these household slaves, depending on what household they were in, could become extremely powerful. or the emperor himself had slaves, and when the emperor sent his slaves to go do his bidding, they went with all sorts of travel pomp and dignity, and they could even tell a senator, the emperor said, do X. And the slave was able to relay that message to a senator, to which many senators were not happy in ancient Rome, but yet this happened.

And some of these slaves served good masters. Notice, only to the good and gentle. There were those who treated their household slaves with dignity, goodness, respect. They weren't crooked, they weren't imposing on them, but they were gentle towards them. But there were those who were harsh. The word harsh there, if you've ever met somebody who has scoliosis, right?

They've got a creak or a turn in their spine. The word here is skuli, right? This is a crooked person. This is somebody who's bent in the wrong direction. They're harsh, threatening, mean towards their slaves. And Peter writes them and says, you household servants, you household slaves, be submissive to your masters. And this was a dangerous thing.

I don't want to whitewash Roman history for you. I mean, this is not a type of system that I would ever want to see come back in modern culture. This is a horrible thing, especially for those women, older and younger, and especially boys. There was a lot of sexual exploitation that happened under Roman slavery.

It was evil and wrong, and we ought to categorically see it for that and call it for that. And yet, God himself says here that they are to be submissive. It's very different in many ways from our modern, our 1800s view of slavery, 17 to 1800s view of slavery in the American South. In the American South, it was largely people were enslaved because of their race.

Not so in Rome. Again, in Rome, it was very different. If you were a slave, you were often of a very similar ethnicity. There was no color of your skin that would differentiate you. And because of the Hellenization, because of the Greek culture and language spreading throughout the Mediterranean world, they also spoke the same language. So it wasn't based upon language and it wasn't based upon skin color, but many people were slaves for different reasons.

You might become a slave in Rome. because you lived in some place like Carthage. And when the Romans captured Carthage, they took 50,000 people as prisoners of war and they became slaves in Rome. So you were a political, a slave because of political unrest. Some people sold themselves into slavery in Rome because they didn't have the money to pay off their debts.

And so they would sell themselves into slavery. Sadly, some very poor families would even sell their children into slavery. It wasn't any fault of their children, but their parents needed, they couldn't feed them, and they couldn't take care of them, and they couldn't pay for their debts, and so they sold their children. It was a poor and pitiful situation. Some of these household slaves that Peter is writing to here would have found themselves actually saved by their slave masters. This is one of those weird and cruel things that happened in Roman society.

When, if a man was out to war, he could receive a letter from his wife. And his wife would say, oh, I had a little girl. And while he was on the battlefront, he would write to her and he would say, expose her. And she would take that little girl and take her out into the field and leave her to die in the elements.

Actually, the Christians were known for going and going and saving those children so they could raise them in free Christian homes. But it was also sometimes that you would have other Roman citizens comb through the fields and take these children and they would become slaves, domestic slaves in homes. And then you would also find some of these slaves as well who were just outright captured by slave traders. essentially people who were like pirates on ships and they would go and they would board a vessel and destroy the ship and take everybody else in chains and then sell those people as slaves.

And so how these people in verse 18 found themselves to be slaves, we cannot categorically say, oh, all of them became slaves this way. No, he's writing to a whole bunch of people who in very many different ways had found themselves in this position of becoming household servant slaves. But again, very different than an American South, These slaves were often given the ability to be able to buy their own freedom.

And so I don't want to whitewash this. I don't want to act as if there wasn't abuse or injustice, but I do want to paint for you what I think is an accurate picture of what the situation Peter is writing into is. And notice the command he has for them in verse 18. This subject and then the command fills out the rest of this paragraph.

Servants, be submissive. to your masters. The word here for masters is a word we get our word despot from. Despotic. Despotos. This is this idea that they have a master who does command them and Peter is telling them in no uncertain terms that they need to bear up underneath it. They need to listen and obey to them. But notice why. Look at verse 18 again. Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear.

I'm convinced that that fear there is not speaking of the fear of the Master, but it's out of their reverence to God. Because of the singular nature of what that is, with all fear, I am convinced that that means that they are the same way we talked about previously, why we submit to ruling authorities. It's not because they are in desperate fear of those who are lording over them, But it's because they fear the Lord, because they reverence God. Their conduct is motivated by their faith in God. And so they submit to their masters. Some of them are gentle and good, but some of them are also harsh.

At this point I need to again tell you that the New Testament doesn't outright challenge the institution of slavery. Actually, amongst the ancient world, the whole concept or institution of slavery wasn't ever, in any ancient writing I've ever read, any type of thing that's like, oh, we have to overthrow this and it's evil. No, it's so baked into the sinful way in which our culture operated that it wasn't addressed here in the New Testament as, okay, slaves, revolt against your masters. But as we find in the New Testament, especially as Paul will write, it turns the institution of slavery on its head from the inside to the point that it will eventually disappear in the West.

Paul writes to his protege Timothy in 1 Timothy 1.10, he says this, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, These are the types of people that he's saying aren't going to inherit the kingdom of heaven. But that word for kidnappers there are slave kidnappers. Those people who are stealing other people to bind them into slavery. He says those are not the type of people Christians ought to be.

And then in Ephesians 6, 9 when he speaks to masters, he also tells slaves that they are to obey their masters in Ephesians chapter 6. But when he speaks to masters, I want you to notice what he says here. Ephesians 6, 9. And you masters, do the same things to them.

Give up threatening. Give up threatening. Look with me at verse 23 of our passage today about Jesus. Who when He was reviled, did not revile in return. When He suffered, He did not, do you see the word? Threaten. Jesus is the Lord of all the universe, and Paul is in no way holding back.

He's saying, Masters, stop threatening at this moment. Stop it. Put it away. Behave like Christ, who is our Lord, who is your Lord. Masters, you don't have any right to threaten the people under you. Give up threatening, knowing that your own master also is in heaven and there is no partiality in him.

Do you see how he's flipping things on its head? The scriptures are saying here, hey masters, you have a master in heaven and you better obey and be kind and be good and be gentle with your servants. You want to know why? Because when you go before the judgment seat of God, he doesn't care if you were a master or a slave. He cares about your conduct and your love towards him and towards others.

And then in 1 Corinthians chapter 7 verses 20 through 23, Paul says this about slaves and masters. Let each one of you remain in the same calling in which he was called. Were you called while a slave? This is this idea of being a Christian, right? Did you hear the gospel respond by faith when you were a slave?

Don't be concerned about it. But if you can be made free, rather use it, right? If you were a slave, hey, don't sweat it. You're not going to be looked down in the church. But if you can become free, great! Buy your freedom. That's wonderful. For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's freedman. See, Paul is telling them, the Scriptures are telling him here, hey, even you bond servants, even you household slaves that we would look at in verse 18, you may be a slave in this world, but in reality, you are free in Christ. You are free. Likewise, he who is called free is Christ's slave. You were bought at a price. Do not become slaves to men.

And then Paul again addresses this whole idea of slavery in Philemon verses 15 and 17. For perhaps he departed, he's speaking of Onesimus here, the slave. For perhaps Onesimus had departed for a while for this purpose, that you may receive him forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother, especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. If then you count me as a partner, receive him as you would me." See, Onesimus had been a slave who ran away from Philemon, his master. And do you know what Paul says? He says, Onesimus, you need to go back to your master. You're both Christian men, and I'm going to give you this letter to hand to your Christian master, and how is he supposed to treat you? With dignity, respect, and love, the same way he would me. Because you're both brothers in the Lord.

And do you see what happened as Christians started behaving this way towards each other in the church? Eventually, slavery started to disappear in the West. started to disappear amongst the Romans in the West as they became more and more Christian. Because this tears down those walls of slavery, slowly but surely transforming it from the inside.

And you might say, okay, well that's all fine, Brian, you're giving us a really long history lesson, but what about today? How does this apply at all to us today? Well, we don't have slaves today. There may still be pockets of the world today and certain Arab nations and things like that, but not amongst most of the world. And so how does this apply in any way today? Well, I'm going to encourage you that I would understand this, that some of you don't have slaves, but you still have employees. You still have people who work for you and some of you find yourself contractually bound to work for other people.

Do you submit to them? Do you obey them? out of a reverence to God. And for those of you who are in the positions of bosses or authorities, how do you treat the people who are under you? Do you treat them with respect? Are you kind to them? Are you gentle? Are you good to them? Now this is going one step further, and you may not like it, you may become uncomfortable, but children, do you listen to your parents? Do you submit to them? Parents, do you threaten your kids and treat them with harshness? Are you crooked towards them? Or do you love them and care for them and want their best?

We're going to find next week that this is exactly the same pattern that's going to go on in 1 Peter. And so we must respect and be submissive in various areas of our life out of reverence to God, not because of the person. Okay, well we gotta keep going. Point number two, boy that was half our time and we gotta keep moving. Point number two, there is grace in enduring unjust suffering. Look with me at verses 19 and 20.

For this is commendable, Because if, because of conscience toward God, one endures grief, suffering wrongfully, for what credit is it if when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.

See, there is a real awareness that the people are supposed to have in this submission to those who are their lords over them. It's commendable for one reason. Did you notice that one reason? Because of conscience toward God. The grief that they might endure, the suffering that they might endure, the pain and hardship that they might endure, It only counts for them if they're doing it out of a true conscience for God's glory. Then it is commendable to them. Then it is God's favorable face shining upon them, as out of a pure conscience they endure this grief, suffering unjustly. And it is unjustly, this idea of suffering wrongfully is suffering unrighteously, meaning they didn't deserve this suffering, they didn't deserve to be treated this way, they didn't do anything to find themselves in this position, and yet here they are. And so they submit and they follow, and they seek after the Lord.

And he says, hold on, there's two different situations here, right? This is what he's getting at in verse 20. You know, if you're just a bad servant, and you have sins, and by the way, when it says here, for what credit is it when you are beaten for your faults, the word there is sins, right?

You sin against others, you steal from your laborer, you make your employer's life a living, you know, and you're just that type of employee that nobody ever wants to give a reference to. And you think, oh man, I'm suffering so much. My boss is so cruel. Just, that's not suffering, right? You're bringing it on yourself. That's what he's getting at here in verse 19. There's no, or verse 20, there's no credit in that. If you're beaten for your faults, when you take it patiently. But, there's a different scenario in the second half of verse 20.

But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, This is commendable before God. This is Christian suffering. When you are doing good and they slander against you, when you are doing well and they speak evil against you, that's how Christ suffered. Christ didn't suffer because he was sinful and so people punished him. Christ suffered having not done anything sinful and yet enduring grief.

That is commendable before God. It's not about seeking out their personal justice or trying or anything like that, but it's trusting that at the end of the day, God is the righteous judge. And they show that they trust in God's ultimate vindication by even submitting to these unjust lords of theirs. There's no credit for just punishment. But there is commendation from the Lord if we suffer even unjustly. This idea isn't new.

I mean, just look up at verse 12, right? Having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak evil against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works, which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. You know, it's gonna be really, really hard for these pagan masters If their slaves, these domestic servants, are so obedient, so hard-working, so respectable, so just, so good, that when they slander and say evil things against them, it's to their shame because they know that they're lying through their teeth about them. Right? That is how the Lord is going to turn the world on its head. And this is where I'm trying to encourage you, right?

We may get uncomfortable with this passage, but this is real Christianity. There's so many people in the world who think, oh, the Bible just seems so out of touch with reality. But when the Bible actually speaks to real life situation, unbelievers go, oh no, no, no, that's too harsh, that's not what I wanted the Lord to say. It doesn't line up with their expectations. But this is nitty gritty reality, Christianity 101 applied. You have been sanctified, you have been sprinkled in the blood of Christ, you have been called by God, so now what do you do? Go and obey your unjust masters. Man, the world don't like that type of message. But that's what the message is here. That their suffering is real. God knows their grief. God knows their suffering. God knows their pain. God knows the unjust punishment that they are enduring.

He knows it. He knows it in your life. He does not just think, oh, I saved them, and so their lives are perfect now. No, the Lord knows your suffering. The Lord knows your grief. The Lord knows your pain. The Lord knows that some of you work for bosses who are unreasonable, over-demanding, and who work you like you're a slave. And the Lord knows that. He knows the grief. He knows what it's like for you to want to do good, to try to love Him and follow Him, and for your evil workers and your bosses to look at you and to speak lies against your character. The Lord knows that.

And I gotta say, you live in a blessed time. You could quit your job. You could leave. You can go find a different employer. You can pray that God gives you a better boss. These people couldn't. This is the situation they were in. So becoming a Christian is not about an easy life. It's not about health, wealth and prosperity.

But you may indeed face increased trials and yet you are called to endure those griefs. Because there is purpose in your suffering. Because at the end of the day, you're not trying to get your boss' approval. But your conscience is before the living God who judges the just and the unjust. And you say, vengeance is the Lord's. He will repay. I'll be patient. I'll do what's pleasing to my God. And the pure example that we're given of this is Jesus Christ himself. Verses 21 and following. Christ as our ultimate example. Look with me at verse 21.

For to this you were called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you all should follow his footsteps. Jesus walked this path. God is not calling you to do something that he has not done himself. But Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, the second person of the Godhead himself, knows what it's like to suffer. He's left His footprints for us to follow. And His footprints are that in the way of suffering. Walking through the valley of the shadow of death, Jesus has gone before us. He has left us an example to follow.

And this is a challenge for you to follow Jesus Christ. It may be hard. I wish I could come up here and I could tell you that some of you, if you would just come to Christ, your life would be better. But I can't do that because it would be a lie. Your life here on earth may become more difficult for following Jesus Christ. People may slander against you, they may revile you, they may treat you unjustly, they may steal from you, try to lead you astray, try to trap you, try to abuse you. This is the reality of Christian life. And Jesus faced that same thing. Jesus Christ left us this example to follow in His suffering. And you can't do this. You cannot do this. You will not do this. It's impossible to do this if you don't have faith in Christ because it doesn't make sense.

There's a reason why there are shelves and shelves and shelves full of self-help books. There's a reason why the prevailing philosophical and psychological advice today is, if you're suffering, leave. Leave the people behind. Get out of there. If your marriage is difficult and you're married to a tyrant in your marriage, just get out of there. If you're suffering at work and this is hard, you've got to leave.

Right? You've got to make things better for yourself. And sometimes the Lord says, no, you won't know what you need to do. You need to be salt and a light in a horrible place. knowingly, and I'm not telling you to go into situations where you're being abused and you're being mistreated and you're just putting up with it. And I'm pleased, even if it's in the church, I'm not telling you to just sit underneath abusive elders and just take it. That's not what this is saying. But we're so averse in our culture to pain and hardship. We think if something is difficult, it must be wrong. And here Peter's saying, no, it's not wrong.

This is the way of Christ. This is the nature of Christ's suffering. Look at verses 22 and 23. "...who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth, who when He was reviled, did not revile in return. When He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed to Himself who judges righteously." Jesus Christ suffered for You. Peter had no problem saying this to the mixed crowd in the churches of modern day Turkey. He told them, Christ also suffered for us.

He left us an example. Jesus did no sin whatsoever. He didn't do anything wrong. No deceit was found in His mouth. He is that one prophesied of in Isaiah chapter 53. There was no treachery in His mouth. Jesus spoke exactly what His Father told Him to say. And yet He suffered. He endured severe punishment. He was reviled.

Guys, just think about what happened at the crucifixion. This idea of reviling is tied to mocking. They put a robe of purple on Him, mocking Him as a king. The Roman centurions, the pagans. Kneeled before Jesus like He was the Emperor. They put a crown of thorns on His head and beat it into His brow. Pilate put Him on a cross. Mocking Him with the charge above His head. Here is the King of the Jews. He was the King. And they mocked Him and they reviled Him. But what did Jesus do? He was as a lamb led to the slaughter. He opened not his mouth, but he endured that suffering for us.

He committed himself to the one who judges rightfully because Jesus knew on the other side of the cross was glory. So we must be those who trust. We must be those who trust in God's plan as Jesus Christ trusts in God's perfect judgment. We must be those who find ourselves in difficult places and difficult relations and yet trusting that God truly is in charge here. And we remain faithful despite the circumstances. So fifthly, the purpose and power of Christ's sacrifice. Look with me at verse 25. This is still talking about Christ. Notice verse 22, who committed no sin. Verse 23, who when he was reviled.

And then verse 24, who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree that we having died to sin might live for righteousness by whose stripes we are healed. The big theological word here is substitutionary atonement. substitutionary atonement, Jesus died as a substitute for us.

He himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree. This is the gospel. Christ suffered for us. Christ died for you. Christ hung upon that cursed tree, taking the punishment that I deserved and that you deserved. Jesus suffered for us. Jesus died for your unjust and unrighteous behavior. Jesus took your gluttony, He took your anger, He took your lust, He took your hatred, He took your discord, and your envy, and your jealousy, He took all those fruits of the flesh, your sexual immorality, and He nailed them to the cross.

This is what Jesus has done for us in his suffering. It wasn't without a point. He himself bore our sins. It is as if there was a heavy weight put down on Christ's shoulders. Every sin that I deserve death for and every sin that you deserve death for, Jesus bore upon his own shoulders. Now we might die to sin and live for righteousness.

Every wound and welt, every bruise at the whips caused on Jesus's flesh as he was tortured, tortured, was for us. This is one of those things that I don't like images of Jesus. And one of the reasons why I don't like images of Jesus is so often they paint pictures of Jesus as if he's just, you know, he's like this perfect white-skinned dude upon a cross, right? Jesus was beaten to a bloody pulp.

They punched him in the face. They beat him. They whipped him. They scourged him. He had no comeliness or likeliness that we would be attracted to him, no. No, and by every wound He suffered as He was inflicted on the cross, it was for us. It was for us. By His wounds you have been healed. We've been desanitized by the horror of this event. This is the reason why it's called the Passion. It's the Greek word here used again and again. Suffering, suffering, suffering.

Jesus suffered that we might be redeemed by his blood. Peter closes us with verse 25, as this example left for us of unjust suffering and yet faith. For you were like sheep going astray, but now have turned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls. So at this point I'm just going to ditch the manuscript of the outline here and I just want to talk to you, right?

Because there's some of you... There's some of you here that I don't know if you are a Christian. There's some of you who are walking astray. Some of you are doing it quietly and secretly in your heart. You're coming to church and you're acting as if you're a Christian. You're acting as if you're a member of a Christian family and you put on a good face when you're here.

And yet at home you're chasing the poison and the desires of this world and of your own heart. You're rebelling and desiring the ways that lead to death. And this morning, this morning Jesus is calling you. to come to Him, the Chief Shepherd and Visitor of your soul, who took your sins on His own shoulders, bore them in His own wounds, hung upon that cross to redeem you from yourself and from your own sins. And so I don't know, maybe you hate me, maybe you think that all this stuff that you've been hearing in the church, and you just think of all the church hurt and all the gossip and slander and whatever, and I don't care. My question is, do you trust in Jesus Christ? Are you holding to Him? Do you see Him upon that cross? And say, my Lord and my God, is He your hope? Is He your trust? Is he your only hope and faith in life and death?

This is the call of first Peter. The only reason why the slaves would obey their masters was if they had this type of faith in Christ. Then they could endure their suffering because they knew that there was hope. Because their savior, their Lord, had suffered the same way.

Closing Prayer

Have faith in Christ. Come to him. Trust in him. Follow in his footsteps. He's a good shepherd. He goes after you. If you're straying this morning, if you've gone your own way, if you've been closing off your heart to him, he comes and he visits those who are his own. He is the good shepherd. He is the overseer of our souls. And so trust in Him. Look to Him for all eternity. Let's pray.

God, I don't want to emotionally manipulate people to somehow think that they can get into your kingdom by an emotional response. But yet, Lord, the gospel does cut us to the heart, brings us to our knees. And at the name of Christ, every tongue will confess and every knee will bow that he is Lord. Father, please give us strength. Lord, give us strength to follow in the footsteps of Christ. Lord, days of unjust suffering may still come. They may still slander against us, even though we try to do good. Father, please lift up our eyes to heaven. Let us take comfort in who you are, for you are good. Thank you for giving us our Good Shepherd. Thank you for being the overseer of our souls. In Jesus'