The Suffering Servant
3-23-25
If we were to take a pop quiz today and asked everyone here the question "Who is Jesus?" what kind of responses do you think we would get? That would be an easy test because there are a lot of correct answers to that question. In fact, we can't even begin to exhaust all of the characteristics of Jesus that are revealed to us in Scripture.
But we can start. Who is Jesus? He was a man who was born of a virgin in the town of Bethlehem. He grew up learning to be a carpenter in the small village of Nazareth. He was a humble and loving teacher who was able to keep the attention of large crowds for long periods of time. He was a compassionate and powerful healer. He was an insightful preacher communicating truths in ways the people had never seen or experienced before. He was Immanuel, God in the flesh. He lived a perfect life as a model for how we are to live our lives.
Those are all good answers that combine to give us a good picture of who Jesus is and what He came to do. If you were to answer our quiz with those answers you would get a good grade, but not a perfect one. If those were the only answers that we were to give to the question of who is Jesus, we would be leaving out the most important answer to that question. The most important answer to the question who is Jesus, the one answer that would give you an a plus on our quiz, is that Jesus was the suffering servant and crucified Savior. It is that part of His earthly existence that many people either overlook because they don't understand Him, or they ignore that fact because we don't like thinking about what He went through for us.
But we need to know about His sacrifice; we need to be exposed to His death. Without that, He was just a man; just a good teacher; nothing but a decent role model. It was on the cross that He declared it is finished as He completed the work of redemption for our souls He came to accomplish. This morning in our continuing look at the book of 1 Peter, we're going to look at His suffering and what that practically means for us. Let's now read 1 Peter 2:21b-25.
It is clear from Scripture that Jesus suffered persecution that no one else has gone through or even could go through. His suffering and sacrifice was unique to Him and to Him alone. It is also clear from Scripture that Christians have also been called to a life of persecution and suffering. But don't be mistaken: His redemptive suffering as the one sacrifice for sin has no parallel in our suffering. We don't suffer like He did; we don't die to pay for anyone's sins like He did.
Not only did Jesus suffer, He suffered for us. His suffering wasn't just some sort of generic, general suffering for mankind; His suffering was personal. He suffered for you and for me. Not only that, but we are the ones responsible for His suffering. We weren't there at the time, but it was because of our sin He that went to the cross, suffered, died and rose again.
It's important therefore that we come to grips with our sin. It isn't a general sense of wrongdoing; it's not the idea that people are bad and do bad things sometimes. We are sinners. Our sin is a direct and willful violation of God's law that we each commit personally. Don't let the devil or the world whitewash that fact and allow you to think that you really are OK without Christ's sacrifice and death on the cross. Don't be deceived into thinking that apart from Christ you're generally a good person. We are all personally wicked, depraved sinners who deserve death and hell. That's why Jesus came and that's why He went through what He went through.
In verse 24 Peter briefly mentions and refers to what Christ went through on the cross for our sins. His death paid the penalty for all the sins of all who will ever be saved and forgiven. While He was on the cross dying for our sins, He not only endured the wrath of God against sin, but He also suffered a much worse fate when He was separated from the Father for the only time in eternity past or future when the sins of mankind were put upon Him. He paid the price for our sins that we could never pay. That satisfied God's divine justice and freed God to forgive those who repent and believe.
Peter wrote this letter to believers who were undergoing pretty severe persecution for their faith. Whether they realized it or not, they would be facing much more persecution in the future. This letter was written shortly before Nero began his severe persecution of the church throughout the Roman Empire.
In order to help his readers effectively deal with the difficult times they were facing in life, the apostle wanted them to look closely at how their Lord responded to His suffering. Since Christ endured unequalled suffering when He went to the cross, Peter focused on that event as the ultimate example and standard for his reader's behavior as they responded to difficult times. That same truth applies to us today. Jesus is our role model for everything and especially when it comes to how we are to conduct ourselves in the difficult times of life.
First of all, we see where Jesus suffered unjust treatment. Jesus was perfect; He was sinless; He didn't ever break a law or even come close to violating any of God's commands. He died as a criminal even though He ever committed a crime; He took upon Himself the sin of the world even though He Himself never sinned. From just about every angle, what Jesus went through was unjust.
Even though Jesus suffered unjustly, there was no deceit found in His mouth. In other words, He did not sin in anything that He said. Verse 22 is a direct quote from Isa. 53:9. The term for deceit actually refers to sinful corruption, so it's much more general in nature than simply saying something that isn't true or saying something with the intent to deceive someone about something. No matter how bad His suffering was, Jesus never sinned in anything that He said.
Sin originates from the heart and it is from the heart of man and through the mouth that sin is most often and most easily expressed. Even the prophet Isaiah recognized that truth. Isa. 6:5. Isaiah was fully aware of how sinful and depraved our lips and tongues can be. Of course, Jesus could never utter anything sinful, since there was no sin in Him.
So then, how are we to respond when we are treated unjustly, because there will be times in your life when you will suffer unjustly for your faith in Jesus Christ. Needless to say, we need to respond to unjust treatment just like Jesus did. That means sometimes its better just to keep quiet so that we don't sin with what we say. Oftentimes we get ourselves into trouble when we open our mouths and say something that we shouldn't say. Anyone ever have a problem with that?
The tongue is very hard to tame. James 3:5-9. One outward proof of the Spirit working in our lives through salvation is that we sin less with our words. One aspect of that is in regards to foul and filthy language. Before I was saved, like most people, I had a filthy mouth and used a lot of filthy language. But from the moment I was saved, the Spirit began taking that away. I didn't stop cussing immediately, but it didn't take long before that aspect of my former life was gone. So if you're still struggling with saying a lot of bad words or if it doesn't seem to bother you that you do, maybe there are some areas of your walk with God that need to be addressed.
Other ways that we can tame our tongue is to always tell the truth. We need to abstain from gossip. We shouldn't be whining or griping or complaining about this, that or the other thing. People should trust what we say because they know that we tell the truth and can be counted on. We should be using our mouth and our tongues to praise and worship God for who He is.
Our word is our bond and if we're going to respond to suffering and persecution in a godly and Christlike way, then we're going to have to control our tongues, or more accurately do our part to allow God to control our tongues. That is how Jesus responded to unjust treatment and it's how we need to respond to it as well.
Jesus also suffered unjust torture. Crucifixion was one of the most painful and awful ways to die ever devised by mankind. Jesus suffered terribly while on the cross, but He also suffered terribly in the hours preceding His actual crucifixion.
Before victims went to the cross, they were scourged and the Roman soldiers were very good at doing that. The beating victims received was so severe, it often led to death before they were ever crucified. That's what Jesus went through. The soldiers took Him and beat Him nearly to the point of death; they spit in His face; they placed a crown of thorns on His head. Maybe worst of all, they mocked Him and acted like they were worshiping Him. They hit Him and slapped Him and asked Him to prophecy who did it. We can again go to the prophet Isaiah for an OT prophecy related to what Jesus went through. Isa. 53:4-5. That is exactly what happened to our Lord.
But through it all, He did not get angry and He did not retaliate against His abusers. The fact that He didn't retaliate is actually pretty remarkable. Jesus could have justly and righteously responded to all that was being done to Him. As the sovereign, omnipotent Son of God and the creator and sustainer of the universe, Jesus could have blasted His cruel, unbelieving enemies right into eternal hell with one word from His mouth. But He didn't. Instead, he actually asked for forgiveness for those who were putting Him to death. Luke 23:34.
Instead of making threats against others when we've been unjustly abused, sometimes it's better for us to just keep still. Have you ever asked for forgiveness for someone who was persecuting you? How do we react instead? We get mad; we might yell and scream; we probably make threats to them; and a lot of times we start planning our revenge on how we can get them back. That is not what God wants us to do. Romans 12:19.
Not only are we not to be seeking revenge, there are more proactive steps we can take in responding to and reacting to those who are persecuting us. Those are found for us in the next couple of verses in Romans. Rom. 12:20-21. If your enemy is hungry feed them and if he's thirsty give them something to drink. We are to be actively serving and ministering to those folks who may be doing us tremendous harm. That is exactly how Jesus responded to unjust torture and how we need to respond as well.
When we are saved by Christ's death on the cross, a couple of things happen. For one, it changes our standing before God. Since our sins have been paid for and removed from us, God declares us righteous. But it also changes our nature. We are not only justified in our relationship with God, but we are also transformed from sinner into saint. 2 Cor. 5:17.
Because we've been justified and transformed, Peter gives us a couple of goals to shoot for. In verse 24, we find two steps that we need to take in our lives to help us live for Christ and to help us respond in good, godly ways to the persecution that we face in life.
One step that we need to take in life is dying to self. Matt. 16:24-25. What does it meant do die to self or to deny self? Well, it means instead of engaging in some sort of sin, you stop and turn to God. There are a lot of sins that quite frankly we really want to engage in during the course of our lives. But when we die to self, instead of engaging in and committing those sins, we instead obey God. The flip side of that is the other step we need to take and that is to live in righteousness. We can't just say no to the sin in our lives, we also need to turn to God and say yes to Him.
When we die to self, Instead of holding a grudge against someone we live in righteousness and forgive them. When we die to self, instead of speaking your mind to someone we live in righteousness and keep our mouth shut. When we die to self, instead of seeking what's best for us and putting ourselves first, we live in righteousness and seek what's best for someone else and put them first.
When we die to self, instead of engaging in gossip, we live in righteousness and say nice things about the person we're talking about. When we die to self, Instead of saying no to an opportunity to serve in the church, we live in righteousness by doing what God is calling us to do. When we die to self, instead of opting to not witness to a lost co-worker, friend or family member, we live in righteousness by sharing the gospel with them. When we die to self, instead of living in unrepentant, habitual sin, we live in righteousness and confess and repent of all sin. We need to deny and die to our selfish, sinful desires and instead live according to God's righteous plans for our lives.
When we live that way, it is a good witness to the world and God will use our lives and our example to bring lost people to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. That's what it is all about and what God wants us to do with our lives.
Who is Jesus? The best answer to that question is not even that He is the suffering servant. The best answer is that He is our Lord and Savior. Is that true of you this morning? Are you living in a personal relationship with God through faith in Christ? Maybe you're not, or maybe you have some questions. If so, as our singer and musician come now, we invite you to come here and talk to me about whatever it is that God is leading you to do this morning. Don't leave here with any doubts or questions about your salvation. Life is too short and today is the day to respond to God's working in your life as we stand now and sing.
Prayer.