Good morning. My name is Matthew Capone and I'm the pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church
and it's my joy to bring God's Word to you today.
If you are new or visiting with us, welcome.
We're glad that you're here.
And we're glad that you're here not because we're trying to fill seats,
but because we're following Jesus together as one community.
And as we follow Jesus together, we're convinced that there's no one so good,
that they don't need God's grace, and no one so bad that they can't have it.
And that's the reason that we come back week after week
and we spend a large part of our worship service looking at what God has to say in His Word.
We believe that God has something to say to everyone.
If you've been with us, you know that we are in the book of 1 Peter.
And the book of 1 Peter is actually a letter.
It's a letter written by a man named Peter.
And he writes it to Christians who are living in the first century in what is now modern-day Turkey.
And he writes to these Christians to encourage them and instruct them.
And he does that because they are facing opposition in the world
because they're living lives that reflect Jesus Christ.
And they're also feeling out of place in the world
because they're living lives as Christians.
Peter writes to encourage them that Jesus is worth it.
Jesus is worth them living for and loving for.
He's worth them suffering for and dying for.
And he also writes not just to encourage them but to instruct them
that they would know how they should live in the world as Christians
and that they would know how to respond when living as Christians leads to opposition from the world.
Last week, he gave them something of a mission statement.
He told them that they were priests among the nations.
And we talked about what that means.
Essentially, it means that these are people who are meant to represent God to the world
and represent the world to God.
That people would know about God and his goodness
because of the way that his people live.
Now, Peter, in doing that, was just laying the groundwork,
the framework for what's to come in this letter
because now he's going to tell us specifically how we can act as priests.
How can we live in a way that would bring honor and glory to Jesus Christ?
And how can we live in a way that would reflect what's true about God to the world
and bring other people to know him?
In fact, that's how we left off last week in verse 12.
Peter says,
So the goal is that the people receiving this letter, by their actions, would bring glory to God.
This week, Peter's going to get practical.
We're going to look at how Christians bring glory to God
in the way that they interact with the government that's been given to them.
And so it's with that question about government that we're going to turn to 1 Peter 2.
We're in verse 13.
You can open up your Bibles to that.
You can open it up on your phone or you can follow along.
It's near the end of your worship guide.
Remember as we come to this passage that this is God's word.
And God tells us that while grass withers and flowers fall,
his word will remain forever.
And so that's why we read now beginning at verse 13.
Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution.
Whether it be to the emperor as supreme or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil
and to praise those who do good.
For this is the will of God,
that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.
Verse 16.
Live as people who are free,
not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil,
but living as servants of God.
Honor everyone.
Love the brotherhood.
Fear God.
Honor the emperor.
I invite you to pray with me as we come to this portion of God's word.
Father in heaven, we thank you again that you've given us another week to live
and you've also given us another Sunday to hear from you with your people.
We ask that you would send your Holy Spirit because we confess that we need help.
Without your help, we will not be able to hear from you or understand what you had to say to us.
And so we ask that you would do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
That you would speak clearly.
That we would understand and believe and act.
We ask all these things not because we have earned them,
but because Jesus has earned them for us.
And so we ask them in his name.
Amen.
If you've been following the news recently,
you know there's been a very controversial story
about the relationship of the United States to the United Kingdom.
And it all started at the end of August
when there was this woman, an American citizen named Ann Sackalas,
and she ended up having a tragic accident in her car with a motorcyclist
who was a citizen of the United Kingdom.
And that man named Harry Dunn ended up passing away pretty quickly after the accident.
And there are, of course, all kinds of motor vehicle accidents all around the world,
all the time, that we don't hear about.
But this one made the news because Ann Sackalas' husband works for the U.S. government.
And so instead of staying in the country to see this case prosecuted,
she fled and returned to the U.S.
and she made a claim that she does not have to face any consequences
because of something called diplomatic immunity.
Now, if you're familiar with diplomatic immunity,
you know that it's a way of protecting foreign diplomats
when they're in other countries.
So if you're representing the United States, say in France,
the government can't harass you as a representative of another government.
And it's to avoid all kinds of conflicts of interest.
But there's been a controversy now over whether this is,
first of all, an appropriate use of diplomatic immunity,
and second of all, whether it even applies to Ann.
There's some controversy since her husband apparently was not stated
to be an official diplomat.
He was working for the U.S. government,
but whether he's a diplomat or not is controversial.
Now, in that situation, no one was trying to use diplomatic immunity
to get away with doing wrong, right?
This was an accident.
Ann Sackalas didn't think,
I'm going to collide into this motorcycle
and I'm going to get away with it.
However, there are people who do abuse diplomatic immunity.
I had a classmate in college.
He thought very highly of himself.
And his parents were both very high-level political operatives
in Washington, D.C.
And he went to a very elite private school in the city.
And he had a classmate
who was the son of a foreign diplomat.
And so he would tell us stories
about when they wanted to have parties,
they would throw them at this individual's house.
And so there'd be all kinds of illicit and illegal things
going on at these high school parties
and the police would show up
and this classmate of mine,
he would tell stories about how he would walk out of the house
and he'd come up and approach the police.
And they would ask him,
what's going on at that house?
And he would say, you know what?
That's the house of the ambassador.
It doesn't really matter what's going on in this house.
And as frustrated as they would be,
the police in that situation had to accept that answer
because they had no authority
to go into the home of a foreign diplomat
and start arresting people.
That man was covered by diplomatic immunity.
Now I mention that in 1 Peter
because Peter has just told these people
in our passage from last week, verse 9,
that they are a chosen race and a holy nation.
They're their own group of people.
And it would be tempting for them hearing that
to think, that sounds amazing.
We're our own nation.
I mean, God has given us these rules that apply to us.
We don't have to worry about
what the government has to say about anything.
We're just going to follow God's laws.
And if the government requires us of something
that God doesn't require of us,
well, we don't have to worry about that.
We're Christians.
We're a holy nation.
Peter comes making sure at the very beginning
that there is no possibility for these people
to have that misunderstanding.
There is, in other words,
no diplomatic immunity for Christians.
Just because we belong to God
and have been chosen by God
does not mean that we get to disregard
the authorities that he's put over us.
And so he tells us, verse 13,
be subject for the Lord's sake
to every human institution,
whether it be to the emperor as supreme
or to governors as sent by him.
They have a purpose.
They're punishing those who do evil
and praising those who do good.
Even more than that,
so they're not just people
who are keeping the law.
Verse 15, this is the will of God.
By the way, people spend enormous amounts of time
trying to discover God's will for their life.
And you have the great fortune
of being here this morning
and getting to skip all of that.
Because this passage is going to tell you
very clearly what God's will for your life is.
This is it.
You don't need to search anymore.
This is the will of God.
That by doing good,
you should put to silence
the ignorance of foolish people.
In other words,
Christians are not just people who obey the law.
We're not just people who pay our taxes.
We're not just people who respect police officers.
We're not just people
who try to obey and follow the laws
that have been given to us.
We're not just people who follow the rules of the road.
We're also people who are seeking to do good.
And so Christians are also serving their community.
They're also caring for the poor.
They're also actively promoting good
in their communities,
in their neighborhoods,
in their cities.
Not only do Christians not have diplomatic immunity,
not only are there people who are obeying the law,
even more than that,
like we talked about last week,
there are people who are promoting good.
They're not just seeking to do
the very minimum necessary
to get by in their society,
but they're actually looking for ways
where they can promote God's goodness
and his justice in the world.
As Peter's writing to these people,
then he's encouraging them
that that's how they respond
when they face opposition.
When we face opposition from this world,
we don't respond by saying,
well, we don't care anymore.
We don't care about your rules.
We don't care about your government.
But instead, they double down on doing good
and living as citizens
who are models to the world
and are a pleasure for their governors
and their emperors.
Now, we don't have emperors
in the United States, right?
This was written to first century
people in the Roman Empire,
but we still have a government.
We still have government officials,
people who make laws and rules,
and as much as we're able,
as Christians, we obey those things.
Now, there's other parts in the Bible
that talk about this.
There's times, right,
when the government's going to ask us
to do something that God says is a sin,
and Peter's not talking about that.
We see that in Romans chapter 5.
The people in Romans are told,
or not Romans, Acts chapter 5.
The disciples are told in Acts chapter 5
to stop preaching the gospel,
and they say,
well, we can't do that.
God's commanded us to preach the gospel.
That's not a rule we can obey.
But that's not what Peter's talking about here.
He's talking about the basic rules
in the world
that help society to function.
So one question is this.
If we, I mentioned last week,
a church that's come under fire,
not from the government,
but just in their general culture and society
because of some of their views
about human sexuality,
and that church is also doing
what Peter talked about last week.
They're doing good works.
So people are on the one hand
criticizing them.
On the other hand,
they can't help but notice
the good that they're doing.
Peter repeats that here.
Verse 14,
these governors are punishing the evil,
and praising the good.
If we came under fire
here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church
because of our views
of agreeing with the Bible
and what it teaches,
would our governors be able
to praise us for doing good?
Would they be able to say,
you know, we really wish
that those folks would get in line with us
and some of their beliefs,
but we can't help but notice
the blessing that they are
to their community.
And as much as we'd love
for them to stop operating,
we also understand
the tremendous devastation
that would happen
if this church pulled out
of our community.
Can our governors praise us
as people who do good?
Even more than that,
verse 15, he says,
this is the will of God
that doing good,
you should put to silence
the ignorance of foolish people.
And I mentioned last week
this church that's come under fire.
By the way,
there's a second church
that I learned about this week
that's a little closer to home.
It's actually not a sister
denomination of ours,
but it's in our denomination
that's come under a lot of fire
for holding true
to their biblical commitments.
And so this is something
that's coming closer
and closer to home,
and the question is,
how do we respond
and how are the people
outside going to view us?
Peter's telling them
that those who are outside
of the church
should view the church
as a place
where people do good.
And no matter what criticisms
they have about our beliefs
or our practices,
they cannot argue
with the benefit
that the church is
to the world
because of the way
that they are reflecting
Jesus and his character
as priests.
Peter tells us
that we have a reason
for doing this too.
Verse 13,
it's for the Lord's sake.
And then in verse 16,
he tells us
that we are servants of God.
In other words,
our primary purpose here
is to represent God
in the world,
whatever we do
that it would serve him.
Our goal is to make
Jesus famous
by the way
that we interact
with government.
And our goal is
that Jesus would be famous
because of the ways
that we serve
the community around us.
And so what would we do?
Let's just think about it
for a second.
Thought experiment.
There was a politician
recently
who suggested
that churches
that hold faithful
to certain biblical
commitments about sexuality
should have their
tax-exempt status removed.
What would we do
if our tax-exempt status
was removed?
By the way,
if it was,
we'd still be more privileged
than most Christians
in the history of the world.
But what we would do
is we would be
1 Peter kind of people.
We would recognize
1 Peter 1,
verse 1,
that we are elect
and exiles.
We've been chosen
by God,
but we're exiles
in the world.
We would know
that our hope
is not in this world,
but we have a king
who's coming back
for us.
We have a salvation.
This is chapter 1,
still ready to be revealed
in the last time.
And we can rejoice
in our trials
because we know
that it's confirming
that we belong
to Jesus Christ.
And then,
still in chapter 1,
we can prepare
our minds for action
and set our hope
on what it is
that really matters,
the kingdom of God.
We can remember
that Jesus is the one
who was foreknown
before the foundation
of the world
but was made manifest
for us.
That's chapter 1,
verse 20.
And then,
what else would we do?
Well, chapter 2,
we'd put away malice
and deceit
and hypocrisy.
And we'd continue
to this section
realizing,
as we saw earlier
about the stone,
that there are people
who are going to stumble
on the stone.
And then,
we would give praise
and honor
and glory to God.
And we would continue
serving Him,
submitting to the authorities
in the world,
and also,
the mission statement
that we saw last week,
proclaiming the excellences,
this is verse 9,
proclaiming the excellencies
of Him who called you
out of darkness
into His marvelous light.
In other words,
if our tax-exempt status
was removed,
what would we do?
We would praise God
for the goodness
of His grace,
and we would continue
doing good in the world
for the sake of His name.
How do we represent God
as priests
when it comes to our relationship
with the government?
We submit to them
as much as we can,
and we do it
for the sake
of Jesus Christ.
We do it
so that verse 12
from last week
would be true,
that some might see
your good deeds
and glorify God
on the day of visitation.
Our goal,
in other words,
when it comes
to government
and our relationship
with it,
our number one goal
is that God
would be famous,
that He would receive
honor and glory
and praise,
because of the way
that His people
submit to the authorities
that are over them.
That is our number one goal,
that God would be famous
in the world.
I had a,
you all know,
I was a teacher before,
I've mentioned that
a few times,
and I,
at one point,
was teaching a high school
Greek class,
and I had a student
who was in the class
and also
her family was at my church,
this was back in Virginia,
and at one point,
her dad came up to me,
and this was,
you know,
on a Sunday,
and he said,
you know,
we've really been
digging into the Greek
and we've been studying
Revelation chapter 4,
and we've been looking
at that section
in Revelation chapter 4
where the elders
cast down their crowns
before the throne of God.
And you know,
I was,
I'm really trying
to figure out,
what's the possessive nature
of the word there
when it comes
to the crowns?
Because I want to see,
do those crowns,
do they help support
the view
that the Bible
supports private property?
Now,
don't get me wrong,
the Bible's in favor
of private property.
If you don't believe me,
look in the book
of Proverbs.
The point
of Revelation chapter 4
is that people
are so moved
by God's honor
and his glory
and his majesty
that private property
has no place
in their mind
because they have
no choice
but to take their crown
and give it to God.
Our goal
when we think
about government
not primarily
is to figure out
different philosophies
and theories
and ways of thinking
about it.
I'm not saying
those things are bad,
those are good,
but our primary goal
is to bring
honor and glory
to God.
Our primary goal
is that people
would see
and know Jesus
because of the way
we interact
with government
and the way
we think about government.
It's not wrong
to ask questions
about what the Bible
teaches about private property.
It's just that
there's something
so much more important
and glorious
than that.
There is something
better.
And so it's not
that we don't do
those things
or those things
don't matter
but what we do first.
The first question
we ask
is how can I
interact with the government
in such a way
that people
would praise God?
How can I interact
with the government
in such a way
that people
would praise God?
Finally,
Peter tells them
that they're putting
together,
verse 15,
not finally
but in the middle
that they're putting
to silence
the ignorance
of foolish people.
In other words,
if people are going
to speak ill about you,
if they're going
to speak poorly
about you,
let them speak
poorly about you
because you follow Jesus.
Don't let them
speak poorly
about you
for any other reason.
Don't let them
speak poorly
about the way
that you talk
about politicians
that you don't like.
Don't let them
speak poorly
about you
because you're someone
who doesn't seem
to care about
your neighborhood
or the community
that you're in.
Give them only one reason
to speak poorly
and give them
every reason
to speak well
of Jesus.
You're free
in Christ.
Verse 16,
live as people
who are free,
free from the penalty
of sin
and the power
of sin
and so live
in a way
that brings honor
and glory
to the person
who freed you
from sin.
Yes,
you're free
but you're a servant
of God.
Peter's really
giving two
main instructions
here about
how to live
faithfully
as priest
in relationship
to the government.
Instruction one,
obey the authorities
that are over you
and do good.
And then he gives us
another instruction
here at the end,
verse 17,
one about honor.
Honor everyone,
love the brotherhood,
fear God,
honor the emperor.
Remember,
you're living
in a world,
recipients of 1 Peter
and also Christians
in America,
where some people
are not going to like
what you believe
or do.
And how you respond
to each and every
one of them
is with honor.
We make Jesus famous,
we make God famous
and bring him honor
and glory and praise
when we treat
every person
with dignity,
whether they agree
with us politically
or not.
That's part of how
we are priests
to the nation.
That's how we make
God known
to the world
and represent
the world
to God.
Christians bring shame
to the name
of Jesus Christ
when we pick
and choose
which politicians
we'll speak well of
and which ones
we won't.
Now I'm not saying
we can't disagree
with someone.
I'm not saying
we can't criticize
someone.
But we speak
about someone
with honor
and we honor
their position
even if we disagree
with them.
And we honor
the people around us
even if they have
different convictions
about all sorts
of things
in this world.
And we do it
not because we're
doormats
but because we want
God to be honored.
And so we want
them to see
that even as they
walk away from him
we see the image
of God in them.
I've been reading
through this
book that I've been
loving called
Evangelism as Exiles
which is based on
the book of 1 Peter
and he says it
much better than I am
so I'm going to read you
I will so I'm going to
read you a short quote
here talking about
this idea of how
we interact with
the world.
It's written by a man
named Elliot Clark
and he says the fact
is ridiculing your
opponents is the
privilege of the
powerful.
But now as an
excluded minority
American Christians
no longer have
the upper hand.
Maligning our
cultural and
religious adversaries
is therefore no
longer an effective
strategy.
The days of
mocking atheists
crash joking about
homosexuals
slurring Muslims
and making
derogatory remarks
about political
rivals need to
end.
They should have
never existed
but the church
could get away
with such impudence
when we were the
cultural majority.
Not anymore.
And of course
what Elliot Clark
is doing is
not introducing
something new
but calling the
church back to
what 1 Peter wrote
in the first century.
that Christians
would be known
as people who
submit to their
authorities and
obey the laws of
the government
they find themselves
in.
That they'd be
people who would
be doing good
seeking the good
of the community
and the city
and the world
that they're in.
And finally
they'd be people
who honor everyone.
That we would
surprise the world
around us because
unlike them we
refuse to engage
in that sort of
behavior.
But we disagree
with people with
tremendous respect
and honor and so
they have a sense
of what God's
love to them
could look like.
Finally Peter
tells us that the
way that we
interact with God
is different than
the way we interact
with everyone else.
We honor
everyone
and we honor
the emperor.
We love the
brotherhood by the
way so we're
committed, we're
faithful to the
church in a
special way
but we fear
God.
part of the
way that we're
able to honor
everyone is
because of our
fear of God.
We know that
there's something
more than this
world.
And so if we
lose something in
this world because
of obeying our
authorities
that's a small
loss compared to
the future that
God's prepared
for us.
And we also
know that as we
obey the
authorities,
God is the
only one who
can bring true
and full and
final justice.
Matthew chapter
10 verse 28
says this,
And do not
fear those who
kill the body
but cannot kill
the soul.
Rather fear him
who can destroy
both soul and
body in hell.
And of course
that's talking
about God,
right?
That God is the
only one that we
truly fear.
God is the
Lord.
Because there's
no government
or power even
as we submit
to them that
can destroy
our souls.
Peter's
recipients are
able to receive
this and honor
their authorities
even when it's
hard because they
know everything
that Peter has
already told them.
They've been
chosen by God
and they belong
to God.
They've been
sprinkled by
Jesus' blood.
They're servants
of God.
They're not under
the power of sin
anymore and they're
servants of God
because of what
Jesus has done
for them.
The sprinkling
of Jesus' blood
comes from
Jesus' death
on the cross
when he suffered
the penalty
that we should
have suffered
for our sins.
And he lived
the life that
we should have
lived and he
gave his
righteousness to
us and took
our sin upon
himself.
And so he's
given them not
just that forgiveness
but as we've
talked about a
true and full
inheritance that
they have to
look forward to
in the world to
come.
And so because
of that there's
nothing that they
can lose,
there's nothing
they can't afford
to lose to these
authorities as long
as they remain
faithful to God
because they have
everything that is
coming for them to
inherit in the
world to come.
And so that's how
they can be priests.
They're willing to
suffer.
They're willing to
love and live for
Jesus, representing
him to the world
even when it's
hard and
representing him
to the world by
the way that they
interact with
government.
How do we
represent God as
priests when it
comes to the
government of
Colorado Springs
and Colorado in
the United States?
We obey our
leaders as much as
possible unless they
tell us to sin.
do good so that
they would see
God's character
even as they
oppose God.
And we honor
them and treat
them with dignity
that they would
have one small
glimpse of God's
goodness and his
love.
And we do all
of it, verse 13,
for the Lord's
sake, verse 16,
because we're
servants of God,
and verse 17,
because we fear
God.
That's how we can
be priests,
bringing people who
don't know Jesus to
know him and bring
praise and honor and
glory to God.
That's what we're
going to do in our
closing hymn in
which we're going to
sing, all hail the
power of Jesus' name.
So I invite you to
pray with me.
Before we do that,
please pray with me.
Dear Father in
heaven, we thank you
that you speak to us
clearly in your word.
Lord, we ask that
you would help us
to represent you
well in this world,
submitting to the
authorities you've
given to us for the
sake of your name.
And we ask these
things in Jesus' name
because he has
earned them for us.
Amen.