Called to Bless, That You Might Inherit a Blessing

September 23, 2018 · Chronological Study of the New Testament

Scripture referenced 7 passages

The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.

1 Peter 2:13-25 opening bracket of the household code passage, preached the previous week

13 Therefore subject yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether to the king, as supreme;
14 or to governors, as sent by him for vengeance on evildoers and for praise to those who do well.
15 For this is the will of God, that by well-doing you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:
16 as free, and not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as bondservants of God.
17 Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.
18 Servants, be in subjection to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the wicked.
19 For it is commendable if someone endures pain, suffering unjustly, because of conscience toward God.
20 For what glory is it if, when you sin, you patiently endure beating? But if, when you do well, you patiently endure suffering, this is commendable with God.
21 For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps,
22 who did not sin, “neither was deceit found in his mouth.”
23 Who, when he was cursed, didn’t curse back. When he suffered, didn’t threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously.
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed.
25 For you were going astray like sheep; but now have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

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1 Peter 3:1-12

the full passage bracketed and preached this week

1 In the same way, wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; so that, even if any don’t obey the Word, they may be won by the behavior of their wives without a word;

2 seeing your pure behavior in fear.

3 Let your beauty be not just the outward adorning of braiding the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on fine clothing;

4 but in the hidden person of the heart, in the incorruptible adornment of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God very precious.

5 For this is how the holy women before, who hoped in God also adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands:

6 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose children you now are, if you do well, and are not put in fear by any terror.

7 You husbands, in the same way, live with your wives according to knowledge, giving honor to the woman, as to the weaker vessel, as being also joint heirs of the grace of life; that your prayers may not be hindered.

8 Finally, be all like-minded, compassionate, loving as brothers, tender hearted, courteous,

9 not rendering evil for evil, or insult for insult; but instead blessing; knowing that to this were you called, that you may inherit a blessing.

10 For, “He who would love life, and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit.

11 Let him turn away from evil, and do good. Let him seek peace, and pursue it.

12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears open to their prayer; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

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1 Peter 3:1

wives being submissive to unbelieving husbands so they may be won over

1 In the same way, wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; so that, even if any don’t obey the Word, they may be won by the behavior of their wives without a word;

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1 Peter 3:3-4

adornment should be the hidden person of the heart with a gentle and quiet spirit, not merely external

3 Let your beauty be not just the outward adorning of braiding the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on fine clothing;

4 but in the hidden person of the heart, in the incorruptible adornment of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God very precious.

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1 Peter 3:12

closing bracket: eyes of the Lord toward the righteous, his face against evildoers

12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears open to their prayer; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

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Exodus 3:7

God saw the affliction of his people in Egypt and heard their cry

7 Yahweh said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.

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Galatians 3:28

no slave nor Jew nor Greek, male or female, cited to show Christianity was setting people free

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

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Recap

The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.

This message came from a chronological walk through the New Testament that has been going on for some time at First Baptist Jackson. Pastor covered 1 Peter 2:13 through 3:12, reading the passage as a bracketed unit and working through what it asks of believers in their homes and in the world. The throughline was that God's people are called to bless rather than return evil, and that the way they live together matters both to those around them and to their own relationship with God.

What was said

the preacher began by explaining how he was reading this section of 1 Peter. Rather than getting caught up in any one piece of it, he wanted to hold the whole passage together by starting with the closing bracket, "to sum up, all of you," and working back to the opening bracket, "submit yourselves." Both ends address everyone together, not just individuals, and both are concerned with the same thing: people who have received grace living that grace out in plain sight.

The closing bracket draws on a pair of Old Testament quotations about God's eyes being toward the righteous and his ears being open to their cry. The point was that if someone is suffering, that suffering is not hidden from God and is not catching him off guard. God saw the affliction of his people in Egypt, heard their cry, and came down to act. The same is true now.

With those brackets in place, the preacher turned to the middle of the passage, the section on household relationships, which he acknowledged is the part that tends to draw all the attention. He framed it inside the broader context deliberately so it could be read as one piece of a larger call, not as an isolated command standing on its own.

On the wife's side, Pastor spoke directly to women in the room who have husbands who do not believe. The passage holds out the possibility that an unbelieving husband might be won over not by argument but by watching how his wife actually lives. The preacher said that persevering with a gentle and quiet spirit under that kind of difficulty is one of the most Christ-like things a person can do, because Jesus himself kept entrusting himself to God even when the people around him rejected what he was doing.

On the husband's side, the passage instructs men to treat their wives with honor as fellow heirs of the grace of life. Pastor was plain about what follows from that: how a man treats his wife has a direct effect on his relationship with God. Treating her well keeps the line open. Treating her poorly does not.

The preacher closed by bringing both sides back to the same summing-up he started with. The call to be harmonious, sympathetic, kindhearted, and humble in spirit is addressed to everyone. No one is to return evil for evil or insult for insult. The reason given is not simply that it is the right thing to do, but that believers were called for this very purpose, rescued so that they could be a blessing to others and in doing so inherit blessing themselves.

Doing a Bible study?

Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.

Peter writes that we are called to bless others rather than return evil for evil. What does that kind of blessing actually look like in your day-to-day relationships, and what makes it hard to do?
The preacher said that the condition of an unbelieving spouse's heart can bear on how a believing spouse lives their life. How do you respond to that idea, and what does it look like in practice to keep entrusting yourself to God rather than to the other person?

and 3 more questions in the guide

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Find in this transcript

24:57 The body of Christ turned out this week and showed himself this passage actually reminds me of what happened this week. So we're going we've been doing a chronological study of the New Testament for some time, and I've mentioned several times this week that scripture has just been like a cleansing cleansing bath just washing over us here. And so we continue forward last week, and we're gonna continue forward this week. I'm gonna go through right here. First Peter two thirteen, and you'll recognize I did 13 through 25 last week.

25:28 But we're going to 13 through three twelve this week, and we are bracketing this forest so we don't get caught up in the trees. Okay? We're bracketing this thing in a wider stance. And so I'm gonna start with this, the end bracket, not the first bracket. I did the first bracket last week.

25:47 Okay? So I'm doing the end bracket, then we'll come back to the middle. He says to some of have y'all seen the princess bracket? Some of have where So to sum up, that's the way this starts up. To sum up, all of you, and it's really all of y'all.

26:10 Okay? It's plural. So it's not it's not just individuals. It's all of y'all, but it's in the way to deal any blessing that you wanna do, Material blessing, financial blessing, spending time with someone, holding someone's hand in the nursing home, hanging out, blessing someone, giving a blessing. You were called for this very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.

26:40 Now the might in there is not to show that it might happen or it might not happen. The might is contingent upon what you do with the gospel. You might inherit a blessing for what you do for belief in Jesus, salvation. You your sanctification is a part of not cursing people, but blessing people instead. Not returning evil to evil.

27:01 There's plenty of people going around. But what stops We're gonna forget. We're gonna offer forgiveness. That's what we have to offer. God has given us love and forgiveness, and that's what we have to offer others.

27:27 And that's what we are to do so that we might inherit a blessing. Be blessing instead so that you might inherit a blessing. And then Peter has a couple of Old Testament quotes that go along with this, and the first one is this, for the one who desires life, when he wrote this, he had been blessed with the Holy Spirit on his life and inspiring him in scripture that not everybody around him had. They didn't have the same kind of power to actually walk out this type of life that a believer today in this age of grace does Because the Holy Spirit in your life will allow you to hear this still small voice and remind you of these things. And the same power of grace Jesus from the dead is at work in you so that you might have a transformed and renewed mind and be able to do this, depart from evil and and to do good, to seek peace and pursue it.

28:45 The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, and his ears were open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against evildoers to cut off the memory of them from the earth. That's utter separation from God. Amen. And then first Peter three twelve, which is where we're closing the the brackets.

29:07 Right? For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous. When in the Old Testament, it says that God's face was turned towards them or his Jacob. And God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them. Three seven is also for you.

29:52 Lord said, I've surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters. For I'm aware of their sufferings. If you are suffering, it is not something that's taking God by surprise. God knows, and he hears it. Okay?

30:09 So I've come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious So that we've just finished the the last bracket. Now we're going to the front bracket. Front bracket. I'll just read this too or try to. I preached it last week.

30:38 I'm just reading through it. Okay? Let it wave over you. Let it wash over you. Submit yourself.

30:44 Now this submit yourself thing, we just started with all of y'all to sum up, be harmonious and sympathetic. Okay? And then this opening bracket says submit yourselves, all of y'all, And for the Lord's sake, to every human institution, whether to the king as one authority or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and the praise of those who do right. Remember again too that the paraphernalia's law was enforced right now. First Peter and first Timothy were written within a year of each other probably.

31:18 The different places going different places, but the law was Patafamilius, that the father of the family was an instituted head of household by the government and part of the government. Does that make sense? By Roman law, the husband was the head of the house. And if it was the oldest husband in the family, he was the head of the extended family down to the grandchildren or great grandchildren. Not many people at that time had great grandchildren.

33:08 Be submissive your masters with all respect. This is start the beginning of the household code. Submit yourselves really was the beginning of that opening bracket. Submit yourselves and suffering unjustly. There's something redemptive about suffering.

33:57 It's aggravated, but it's true. For you've been called for this very purpose since Christ also suffered For you were, all y'all were, continually straying like sheep. But now y'all have returned to the shepherd and the guardian of your soul. That's verse 25. So those are the brackets.

36:08 And then it looks like this. Submit yourselves, all of y'all. And then end one is to sum up, all of y'all. Okay? And then we get this right in the middle.

36:17 And this is the big tree that everybody hits on. It's right here. In the same way you are, be submissive to your own husbands. In the same way you ought to be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the world. And what and Peter, every time he says when you're obedient to the word, he's talking about having accepted the gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ that he lived a perfect life, a perfect sacrificial death.

37:10 You have nothing in your hand. You have to take that fully. Jesus paid it all off of him. I hope sin had left a prince in Spain that I could do nothing about, but he washed it white as snow. So if even if any of them are disobedient to the word, that's talking about an unbelieving husband.

37:28 There are some wives in the room right now who have husbands that just don't believe. Some of them come to church, some don't come to church, and that's fine. Man, that's a heavy thing. To say the soul of your spouse is dependent on how you live your life. It's heavy, but it's true.

38:05 And I'd say that your neighbor's friends, the condition of their heart really does bear on how you live your life. As they observe your chaste and respectful behavior, he goes into your adornment. It must not be merely external braiding of the hair and wearing gold jewelry or putting on dresses, but let it be the hidden person of the heart. Oh, harmonious, sympathetic, all of y'all. Let it be a hidden person to the heart with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit.

38:43 I think that this is probably the most Christly, Christ like thing that anyone can do is to be able to persevere under suffering with someone who absolutely does not believe like they believe and does not understand it at all. For you to be able to live it out is very, very, very Christ like, and that's very much the sufferings of Christ. Do you all get that? Because he was rejected over and over and people mocked and stormed for what he did, the way that he did it, but he kept on entrusting himself. And so that's your task, is to keep on entrusting yourself to God, not to your husband.

39:19 Does that make sense to God? When Jesus it says several times, and they were not accepting what he had to say, and he did not entrust himself to them, to the crowd, because they didn't get it. To subdue any dawn ever. Does that make sense? As with someone weaker since, she is a woman, and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life.

41:31 So this whole paraphernalia system that they had was being broken down by Christianity, or Christianity actually was setting people free, was setting slaves free to where they started to act in a way that slaves had never acted before because they felt the freedom of being in Christ. And it started to set women free, and they were able to say and do things that they had never been able to say or do before. And within the church, I think that that's the way that it should be because there's no slave nor Jew nor Greekness, male or female. That's the way it works. But God God does give direction.

42:02 He says there is an order to things, and it is to be followed. Show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life. That is the most important thing that can happen is that we can turn from kingdom of darkness and be accepted in by Jesus' blood into the kingdom of life. She is a fellow heir of the grace of life so that our prayers will not be hindered. So, guys, how you treat your wives makes a difference in your relationship to God.

42:31 If you treat her well, respectfully, gently, and caringly, then your prayers will not be hindered. But if you should choose the Lord over her can come up there and let thee consecrated lord to thee. I'm gonna flip to the benediction for just a second later. This is the benediction. I'll say it again after this song, but I want you to hear the word.

43:20 We're singing, take my life and let thee consecrated lord to thee. It involves this for all of y'all, for all of us. Right? So summing up this whole sermon, that's straight up 10. Summing up, may all of us may all of us be harmonious.

43:36 May we be brotherly acting in a familial manner, kind hearted. May we all be humble in spirit. May we never return evil or evil or insult or insult but blessing others instead because we were rescued and called for this very purpose of blessing others that we ourselves might actually receive that blessing. God, would you stand with us? That we might inherit blessing.

46:44 I actually thought of something just then. If you would like to bless the Upton family, your presence here at the funeral was great, and your presence here today is great. First Baptist has set up a way to be a re blessing and financial resources through them. So if you would like to do that, you don't have to. I'm not twisting your arm.

47:02 But if you want to, you can write a check for First Baptist or the Upton family on the memo line, and that will go a 100% of that will go. In this crooked, diverse generation. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Topics

Blessing Others Marriage Roles Submitting To Authority Suffering Unbelieving Spouse

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