Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, January 21, 2025. Order, Structure, and Obedience from 1 Peter.
Sometimes the Bible isn’t so easy to teach. We love the messages about marriage, money, sex, and stress – and how scripture can benefit us in material ways – We don’t always like the more nuanced teaching about the order and structure of our society (and churches) that is based solely on the obedience we show to The Most High.
Today we talk about just that. We examine how Peter is trying to teach that to a very complex, layered, nuances society, and there is much that the modern person, family, church, and culture can learn.
If we are willing. May God bless you and keep you.
As always, KEEP LOOKING UP!
This is a video recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, January 21, 2025. Watch here via the YouTube link!
This is an audio recorded copy of the FaceBook Live event of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, January 21, 2025. Listen here or through your favorite podcast app!
This is a transcript from the audio of this episode of Turning on the Lights! – Tuesday, January 21, 2025
Okay, good morning, good morning. I think we’re on. It was giving me the broadcast failed salute this morning. So we will wait. I will talk a little bit until we see if folks are here. You can check in with me. If you come on, go ahead and write a message or give a thumbs up. Sometimes it does not indicate that people are on the broadcast. And I just don’t know. I’m telling you again, I don’t know what’s up with Facebook. Maybe it’s gotten too large. Maybe their live streaming isn’t important to them anymore. Maybe there are glitches. You know how technology companies are always fixing things that aren’t broken. You ever have a Black Monday with Microsoft? And you sit down on a Monday morning and you’ve got 30 minutes worth of updates, right? You know, it just cuts into everything. So you never know. And then the updates usually are fixing things that aren’t broken. They’re like, how do I do this now? Because some smart kid thought, yeah, well, let’s do it this way instead of that way. And there’s no need to. So if you’re on, give me a thumbs up. Let me see if we’re broadcasting. If not, I will. I will try it again, my brothers and sisters, but it is a cold Tuesday morning. I am, I’ve got the coffee coffees again. I’ve got my little towel here. So if I go coffee, coffee, I’ll go coffee, coffee into my towel. My voice isn’t where it needs to be. My attitude is good, but what the hey, you know, we’re in the middle of a polar vortex trying to get things done. My dogs don’t even want to go out and take care of their business. They’re looking around going, isn’t there a rug in here you don’t need, you know, it’s just crazy stuff. So I’m going to talk a little bit longer. I see that it says one person popped on, but there’s nothing. No indication that this is a live stream broadcast. I might go out and just try it again, I guess. See what I mean? I thought I, instead of blessing you with that sound, I would try to take care of my business a little bit better. So I don’t know, facey bookie. We’ll go out and try it again. Doesn’t seem to be happening. We’re going to have to switch over completely to YouTube. There Facebook is losing business to a better flat platform. Not that this is business, but you know what I mean? Never have any trouble over there. Oh, round knob is watching. Is it going out? Two? Oh, now I’m really confused. There was nothing. Now there are two. There was one and there was done. And now there are two. And now I have a name round knob. Hello, round knob. Hello to all my friends at round knob. How are you doing this evening? It’s morning for me, but it’s evening for you. I know how we’re doing this. Morning for me, but it’s evening for you. I hope that it’s going to be cold. You brave souls that made it to your Bible study on Wednesday evening, your Bible service on Wednesday evening. God bless you. I felt that way on Sunday. Of course, the snow started coming and automatically, rain’s a different thing, but snow automatically. It doesn’t matter if it is, you know, broadcast to be not much of anything. Snow boom. For a third of the congregation, that’s it. It’s snowing. I’m done. I’m not going anywhere. And I’m not saying anything negative about that. I’m just saying it’s a done deal. I remember a Christmas Eve service. It snowed for about an hour. We have it at seven. Between four thirty and six say it snowed maybe an inch. We’re like 30 people. I ain’t going out in the snow. And so that’s okay. Got the coffee coffees from the weekend. Today we’re going to go into your word and we thank you so much for the opportunity to do so. Pray that my voice holds out that you bless me with health. At least during this time, dear Lord, as we’re into your word. How about that? Can we take that? Thank you, dear Jesus, for all that you do, all that you are. You are the cornerstone of our lives and the cornerstone of your church on Earth. Amen. Yeah, we got about that around here. I spent most of yesterday digging out, shoveling, salting, snow blowing. Last night we finally had the lot plowed. All of those things. It is what it is. It’s part of my job. And so I just do it. You know, I, in the beginning when I first had a snowblower 10 years ago or whatever, I was like, oh wow, let’s go snow blow. It’s fun. It’s not so much fun now. I was in my 50s then. I’m almost 60 now. It’s amazing how little fun, how like the fun drops exponentially for every year that you get older. I know you know what I’m talking about. Minus one here. It’s about that right here. Rosie is minus one here in church town. And like I said, it’s so cold. My dogs, they’re just like, can you find an old rug and throw it in the dining room? We ain’t going anywhere, pop. Speaking of dogs, look at this segue. Let’s talk about obedience. Obedience training for human beings. What does it look like? Well, it is strictly voluntary. There are obedience trainings that you can antecedent behavior consequence, and we will try to perform your behavior to the norm. God doesn’t do that, but human beings like that. Of course, when we incarcerate an individual, every aspect of their movement throughout the course of the day is outlined for them by force. Oftentimes children who are being raised are raised with the switch or the rod or the spanking, right, or the grounding or the discipline, the punishment. And that’s not, I’m not talking about those who are abused. Dear Lord knows I’m not. But they are, the boundaries are enforced. How about we put it that way? Any way you slice it, when human beings are trying to seek obedience out of another human being, it generally has to be by force. Because human beings by their very nature don’t want that. We don’t want to be ordered and structured and rational and A plus B equals C type people. There are definitely all types of people, but even people who present themselves in that way oftentimes are not that way in their private lives. I mean, that’s just the nature of human beings. But human beings have something, a gift from God, and that is the ability to choose. Human beings have their own will. And our desire is that our will will be submitted to the will of God, but we have our own will and we can choose. And when we speak about this in a biblical context, in a spiritual context, in a Christian context, we’re talking about individuals who will submit themselves to the will and the teaching of God. And that is what we see presented, of course, throughout the Old Testament, because you have the sacrificial system and the Mosaic law. And there it is. Here it is. This is how you can draw closer to a holy God. This is how your sins are forgiven. This is how you are temporarily reconciled to a holy God. But ultimately, as we know through the Old Testament, people sometimes said yes and the people more often than not said no. God did not come down. You see examples of his wrath everywhere, from the snakes and the opening of the earth to swallow an entire group to, you know, empire, Syrian empire, Babylonian empire, Roman empire, coming in and kicking butt and taking names. And then God releases them. They say, “Try this again.” But their hard-hearted wills say, “No, I don’t want that. I want this, because this can happen much more quickly, and this will show me to be prestigious in the face of my community.” That’s the temptation. All right? That’s the temptation. The temptation to be your own God. The master of your domain, if you recall those episodes of Seinfeld. It is the temptation. I don’t want you, God. I will not listen to you, God. I don’t want your rules, God. I will not be obedient to you. I will be obedient to me. Well, guess what? You’re not being obedient to you. You’re actually being obedient to the opposer of God’s will, right? The small g god of this world, as he is often called, Beelzebub, the Satan, Satan, that old enemy, the devil. Whatever he can do to tempt you to make your own choices, and if you’re on the podcast, that was air quotes. Whatever he can do for you to make your own choices in a different direction, he will do. Now we have, told you I had the coffee coffees this morning. Dry air, you know, head, sinuses, coffee, coffee, dry throat, whatever. It is the season. You keep plugging along. All y’all know what I’m talking about. God does the same thing. He provides for you all of the information that you need to make the choice. You know what the expectations of God are when you, of course, you first of all, let’s drop back when you, your heart is warmed and your neck is turned and you hear the gospel and you accept the good news. You submit yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is your savior and the Lord of your life. There is a now what portion of that? We as Christians understand that we do not do anything to deserve that. We do not do anything to earn that, but when the gift is given, when the submission is actually genuine and God comes into your, your heart, your being, when Holy Spirit indwells you, there is a now what portion of that? The so what? Well now I, so I am saved. I am justified. Now what? I walk in my sanctification. There are all a lot of the new Testament is about what happens next when we see the letters written into the churches, the pastoral letters written to individuals. It’s about what now you are saved. What now? And when we see that we are saved, one of the great themes of being saved is being in obedience to the Lord. And what does that mean? He never leaves us hanging. His word is completely infallible and Peter is going to go into what does this look like in the context to which he is writing this letter. Now I did make a correction last Sunday because in my research I realized I was 50, 60 years off on the hardcore blood persecution into which Peter is writing, right? He’s writing into a Christian church, if you will, the Christian church universal in the various provinces that have been taken over by the Roman Empire and what they are experiencing is marginalization, the oppression in the sense that they’re not able to freely speak the word. But at this point in time, it’s not going to be till the beginning of the next century. This letter was written in the 60s, the beginning of the next century that the emperor is going to say, “The empire is falling apart. We need an enemy. Let’s make it the Christians. It’s been building up for years. It’s them. They are the reason.” So I did clear that up and then I thought, “Man, how magnificent is that though when you read this letter and you understand that it’s not only written for the time in which it is written, of course, but it’s written for the future. It is written as a foundation, a spiritual foundation for those who are going to experience the hardcore blood persecution that’s coming down the line in a couple of generations. It makes it even more powerful. So here we go. Coffee, coffee. Respecting people in authority. Well, one thing that I talked about on Sunday with the church is that these letters, and we talk about this all the time, they’re not written in chapter and verse. They’re written from beginning to end as a letter. And if you really want to experience how the author constructed the letter, constructed his argument, if you really want to be able to discern the point and purpose of each of the letter and then of each section of the letter, then read it without any chapter headings. Get those numbers out of there, get the subheadings out of there and read it. Because we see how Peter talks about who he is. He has the authority given to him by Christ. He talks about who Christ is, the one who gave him the authority, right? Talks about who they are. They are justified by faith. They are children of God, right? And then he goes on and he talks about what does that mean? It means that Christ is your cornerstone in your personal life and Christ is the cornerstone of your church. And that you are spiritually constructed living stones that build the church. So you see the flow of his letter from up until now. So now we’ve got who Christ is, who we are, what the church is, its firm foundation, its cornerstone in Christ. You as living stones that build the church spiritually, it’s all spiritual in nature. Now what? What does the structure and the order and the submission look like? How can we add boundaries around this? How can we add structure to this? And when I read this about slaves and men and women and the church, I want you to understand that a lot of it is descriptive. It’s descriptive of the culture of the time. We talked about slaves obey your masters. There’s no way that God is saying, “Yes, go get a slave,” and then teach them to, “No, it’s descriptive of the time, not prescriptive as to what we should do.” So as God’s Holy Spirit is inspiring these authors, he has, I guess, would we say in the modern vernacular, meeting them where they are in their culture so that they understand there were his words. This is, again, you hear inane arguments about how Christianity supports everything from cannibalism to slavery and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, because people just read something and they have zero understanding. Zero. One, because they’ve not submitted themselves to Christ. They have not the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth within them. And two, chances are they’re not only not submitted to Jesus Christ, they are antagonistic. They are openly at war with him and his followers. So let’s go into this and then you can hear with a discerning mind what parts are descriptive and what parts are prescriptive, because the meta-narrative of it all is prescriptive and it deals with order, structure, obedience. Some of the descriptive parts are who that deals with. Keeping people in authority for the Lord’s sake. This is 1 Peter 2, beginning with verse 13, and we’re going to go into 1 Peter 3. “For the Lord’s sake, respect all human authority, whether the king as head of state or the officials he has appointed. For the king has sent them to punish those who do wrong and honor those who do right.” That is the ideal, isn’t it? That would be the ideal purpose of any government. We know better, but Peter is promoting, “Be a good citizen.” “It is God’s will that your honorable lives should silence those ignorant people who make foolish accusations against you, for you are free, yet you are God’s slaves. So don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do evil. Respect everyone. Love your Christian brother and sister. Fear God and respect the king. Order, structure, obedience.” And Peter just laid down the ideal situation. You have a government that is over you. It is there ostensibly for your protection to punish the bad, to support the good. But he understands the times and how they are shifting, how Christians are being marginalized, how Christians are beginning their freedom of speech, if you can call it that at that time as being oppressed. And he says, “Look, maintain your relationship with holy God. Live according to his precepts, live according to his will, and those who see you will know there’s something different, something powerful. There is no that there is authority, spiritual authority within you.” That’s all well and good. And Peter is trying to promote that at this time, not knowing where it’s going to go in a couple of generations, but trying to salvage the relationship or build up the relationship that the Christian churches and the Christians have in the Roman Empire at that time. It’s good advice. Now there are boundaries around that. We’re especially going to talk about that on Sunday because there’s another little something that Jesus says, “Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and give unto God what is God’s.” That’s a point of discernment for how do we obey a wicked government. When they’re taking what is God’s, when they’re going against what is God’s, sure, I will give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, right? But when he begins to say, “Nope, we must take human life. Nope, we must do this. Nope, you must obey this mandate to do something that is immoral or unethical or unsafe to destroy your personhood as an image bearer of the most high boundary. Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, give unto God what is God’s.” I’ll let you guys at round knob chew on that because that’s where we’re going to go on Sunday. I’m going to make that a crux of the preaching. As we listen to all of this, we’re not just listening with a discerning ear and what is descriptive and what is prescriptive, but we’re listening to giving unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s. And then we can take that home and really think, “Okay, how does this practically apply to the governmental structures today and what’s being asked of us? Am I just giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s or is Caesar asking for what is God’s?” Slaves, you who are slaves must accept the authority of your masters with all respect. Do what they tell you, not only if they are kind and reasonable, but even if they are cruel. For God is pleased with you when you do what you know is right and patiently endure unfair treatment. Of course, you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong, but if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently, God is pleased with you. Descriptive of the time, the history of humanity is the history of has and have nots, and a large portion of that history is master slave. Underlying all of this is the need for resources. Those who gather resources have resources. People oftentimes willingly, oftentimes not willingly, because of conquest or whatever, become slaves to those who have. Slavery is still alive and well today. It is something that is one of the cardinal sins of humankind. Going back to that original conversation about our egos, our pride, “Look at me. I am my own God and I will be God over you.” It is a strong desire for wicked people to do those things. In the Roman Empire, it looked a variety of different ways from those who have been conquered and it was a chattel slavery as we may remember it in the United States up until the 1860s, 1862, to household servants and indentured servants and “slaves” who for generations have served various families, are treated extremely well, masters of households, all of those things and everything in between. At the time of the fall of the Roman Empire, one-third of the population were Roman citizens. Two-thirds of the population were slaves. So it is a cultural norm that grew and manifested itself generation after generation after generation. So it’s a very real thing. The idea that he’s speaking to slaves is descriptive. What he is speaking to them, because it goes beyond slavery, is prescriptive. How do followers, all followers of God behave? It is a very important distinction and it’s very important that we as Christians understand this so we don’t get into those inane arguments. If somebody comes at me with just a meme for an argument and it’s obvious they have, “What’s this? What is going around today? Tell me you haven’t read scripture without telling me you haven’t read scripture.” That sort of thing, not even engaging or at the most, if I feel moved to do this, I’ll say, “If you would like to have that conversation,” you’ve heard me say this before, “If you’d like to have that conversation, I would be perfectly willing to have that conversation with you.” If this is where you are entrenched and you despise Christianity, then there’s nothing that you and I have to say to each other. Always open to share the Word of God, but there is a point of discernment when you know that individual is just possessed by the enemy, possessed by ignorance, willful ignorance and loving their ignorance and living in their ignorance and/or their hatred. They can hear the Word of God, but a conversation with me isn’t going to be a positive thing. Okay. For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you, for you. He is your example and you must follow in his steps. He never sinned nor ever deceived anyone. He did not retaliate when he was insulted nor threaten revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of God who always judges fairly. He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds, you are healed. Since you were sheep who wandered away, but now you have turned to your shepherd, the guardian of your souls. Those words, like, “Okay, why is that in there?” One, because it’s descriptive of the culture of the time, even in the 300s when the canon was put together. Two, do you hear how powerful that is? When the Lord is speaking to slaves and saying, “I am your power. I am your identity. You’re not your… Your identity is not as a slave. It’s not as property. It is as a child of God. Your human condition is one thing, but your spiritual condition is what matters.” And the power in that, speaking into that culture is absolutely earth shattering in the way that he speaks to slaves and the way that he speaks to women. It’s earth shattering. It’s paradigm shifting. It’s turning everything upside down. What do you mean slaves are people? What do you mean slaves are children of God? What do you mean that they possess or have received the same gift as me? Look at me compared to that. Well, doesn’t that harken back to a lot of Jesus’ teaching, right? The widow who dropped two coins in, that sort of thing. Do not be as one of these Pharisees, right? Actually read the word and live the word. When we put it in that context, it’s powerful. He’s speaking to… You could metaphorically carry that onto today. Are you a slave to heroin? Are you a slave to alcohol? Are you a slave to pornography? Are you a slave to whatever? Are you a slave to Satan? You love your sin and you want to serve Satan. Guess what? There is redemption. There is salvation. There is release. There is identity who you are in Christ. Powerful stuff. We don’t just read over these things. So we can’t read about that because it could be offensive. It’s not offensive. It’s powerful, incredibly powerful. Chapter three. In the same way you wives must accept the authority of your husbands, then even if some husbands refuse to obey the good news, your godly lives will speak to them without any words. They will be won over by observing your pure and reverent lies. Kind of a theme for Peter here. If you’re a Christian, behave like a Christian. If you’re a Christian slave, behave like a Christian. If you’re a Christian wife, behave like a Christian wife. Your example, the authority of God’s Holy Spirit that is inside of you, will serve to be, will serve to be the example of God on earth. Don’t be concerned about your outwardly beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, beautiful clothes. You should be, you should clothe yourself instead with the beauty that comes from within the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. This is how the holy women of old made themselves beautiful. They trusted God and accepted the authority of their husbands. For instance, Sarah obeyed her husband Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters when you do what is right without fear and what your husband might do. Any boundaries around that? Yes, we know that there are boundaries around that as well. For a wife will not be a slave to her husband and will not simply accept wickedness and evil flowing from her husband who is possessed by Satan. Adultery, definite deal breaker, abuse, damaging the image bearer of God whom you have sworn to protect, deal breaker, abandonment, abandoning spiritually, emotionally, physically the image bearer of God, man who you have sworn to protect, deal breaker. There are boundaries around this and we learned those from Jesus Christ himself. This is talking about order and structure and obedience and not like obedience. Yes, sir. Obedience, large term meta-narrative structure, order, building blocks of society. It’s not a chaotic random mess. There is order, structure. It’s like in Ephesians five, Ephesians five, men, you love to hear about how the wife should submit to her husband and do all these things, but then you don’t want to hear in Ephesians five how the man must vow, must covenant with his wife to give his life for her if need be. One, to give up his life now spiritually and emotionally that she may be the child of God that God knows her to be and physically as Christ gave his life for the church. Well, you don’t want to hear that part. It’s always in unison. It’s always structured. It’s always ordered and it’s always for the benefit of those who are indwelled by God’s Holy Spirit. It’s always for the benefit of the disciples of Jesus Christ. Those are your points of discernment when you’re trying to decide, is this of God? Is this man beating his wife and the wife staying with the man because you know what God has brought together, nobody will bring, will tear apart. That point of discernment is rather clear to me because we are called in covenantial relationship marriage, the only covenantial relationship marriage, the only relationship that predated the fall. Yes, there are boundaries around it. God is called husband and wife together and it looks like something. So are you picking up the meta narrative versus the context of the day and putting in the safeguards and boundaries of human relationship that Jesus Christ himself provided? These are the three levels that we’re working with because teaching this stuff isn’t easy. You gotta talk through it, you gotta walk through it, you gotta think through it, you gotta pray through it because God is speaking about the very fundamental building blocks of society, order, structure, obedience. Husbands in the same way your husbands must give honor to your wives, treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered. This is revolutionary in the context of the time. Treat my wife as my equal, yes, and protect her because it is a big bad world out there and men are bigger, stronger, faster than women and men are called into that covenantial relationship and one of the purposes of that covenantial relationship is to protect her and to protect your children. Love her as God loves her and do your job as a husband. I get fired up about this because I’m telling you, man, I’ve performed dozens and dozens of weddings over the past 13 years and every one of them that has broken up has been because of the moral failings and the weakness of men. The moral failings, the weakness and the egos of men and they hurt people. You don’t want to be called into that covenantial relationship. Don’t do it. I get fired up about that and then to all Christians finally for today. All of you should be of one mind, sympathize with each other, love each other as brothers and sisters, be tender hearted and keep a humble attitude. Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do and he will always bless you for it. For the scriptures say, if you want to enjoy life and see many happy days, keep your tongue from speaking evil, your lips from telling lies, turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace and work to maintain it. The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right and his ears are open to their prayers, but the Lord turns his face against those who do evil. Did you hear all of those verbs? We opened up today talking about choice. If you want to enjoy life and see many happy days, now listen to this. These are all verbs for you to make a conscious, intentional effort with. Keep your tongue from speaking evil. Keep from telling lies. Turn away from evil. Do good. Search for peace. Work to maintain it. Are you willing? Are you willing? You’re talking about, are you willing to do that in general before your wife and your family of which Christ is the cornerstone? Will you do that for yourself of which Christ is the cornerstone? Will you do that for your church for which Christ is the perfect cornerstone? And will that serve as an example to believers and non-believers alike? Peter is speaking of the spiritual authority that comes with being indwelled by God’s Holy Spirit. The power of that authority demonstrated in your behavior. Lord, we pray that as a church, as your people, this is what we do. This is who we are. We pray we are recognized as Christ followers in our families, in our communities, in our churches and around the world. Lord, let us hear your word, discern your word, live your word in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen. First Peter is not easy. It’s not easy. And a lot of people shy away from it after the juicy good parts at the beginning. But Peter is speaking to a very complex society, a place where Christians are very much in the mix of a complex layered society. And so we address it as such. And we are not here on TOL biblically illiterate. Right round knob? We’re going deep. We want to know the word. We want our roots to be deep. So one, we can discern an inane conversation from a decent conversation. And two, when we have those decent conversations, we know what to say. One of the things, you know, I served on that vocations committee for a lot of you people would come in and say, “I’m on fire for Jesus. I want to tell people about Jesus. I want to tell people about Jesus.” And I would say, “Calm down. What are you telling them? Because what you tell them matters.” Once had a church planter. “Well, more churches are always a good thing.” I said, “Mm, not if they’re not good churches.” Okay. So let’s seek ye first the kingdom of God. He will add all things unto that in Jesus’ name. We’ll see you in Thursday for Turning on the Light. Stay as warm as you can.
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