Of Lords and Laughter | Toby Sumpter

the sermon text is taken from first peter beginning at the end of chapter 2 and verse 21 and then into chapter 3 a few verses these are the words of god for even here unto were ye called because christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that you should follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatened not but he committed himself to him that judges righteously who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness by whose stripes you were healed for you are a sheep going astray but are now returned to the shepherd and bishop of your souls likewise you wives be in subjection to your own husbands that if any obey not the word they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plating the hair or wearing of gold or of putting on of apparel but let it be the hidden man of the heart and that which is not corruptable even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of god of great price for after this manner in the old time the holy women also who trusted in god adorned themselves being in subjection unto their own husbands even as sarah obeyed abraham calling him lord whose daughters you are as long as you do well and are not afraid with any amazement our god and father we ask that you pour out the spirit of jesus upon us now so that we might rightly understand this word and father we ask that you would teach us what it means to follow the example of christ both in our leadership and in how we submit to authority and we ask for this great blessing in jesus name amen sarah only calls abraham lord one time in recorded history it's it's very likely seems likely to me that it was her custom to call abraham lord but it's really striking at least to me at any rate that the one instance in the whole bible in all recorded history that we can point to is really full of some irony and layers of meaning so the one place where sarah is recorded as calling abraham lord is from genesis 18. and uh so if you have a bible we're actually going to be digging around in genesis 18 for a few minutes before we get to first peter god shows up with two angels and is actually reiterating he's already told abraham once that no sarah is going to have a son and and and that was a rather humorous exchange between god and abraham and now he's showing up a second time announcing it again and it and he's just announced it and in genesis 18 verse 11 it says now abraham and sarah were old well advanced in age and sarah had passed the age of childbearing therefore sarah laughed within herself saying after i have grown old shall i have pleasure my lord being old also it goes on to say that the lord asks so sarah's in the tent when she hears god telling abraham this and she laughs and says this is ridiculous and then god says why did you laugh and and sarah denies that she laughed has the audacity to just lie her head off to god i didn't laugh and it says that she lied because she was afraid i think this is just fascinating that that's the story where sarah says calls abraham lord and that's the example that peter points us to and the reason i want to consider this and i don't want to just just consider this for wives although clearly it's going to apply to you directly this whole context is full of peter giving a number of exhortations about authority and submission at the beginning in verse 13 that is peter's given some general exhortations in first peter 2 13 submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the lord's sake whether to the king a supreme or unto governors and so on and then he goes on to talk about slaves submitting to masters zeroing in on the example of jesus himself and then says likewise you wives and then likewise husbands we live in days where our freedoms are being hemmed in hard in the name of health and safety and we're being bombarded with claims from many christians that we must do the loving thing obey the mandates submit to the ordinances that's what it says and this is one of those texts and in its resistance is getting awkward and difficult it's it's now beginning to mean losing jobs significant strains in our families and in churches being excluded from various venues and so on and peter here in the context of giving general exhortations regarding submission to authority points to sarah's submission to abraham as model submission to authority for all of us and yet it's a strange scene to point to why point to that so when god shows up he appears with two angels on the plains of mamrik and back in genesis 18 here and he did so actually to make two announcements he came to make two announcements the first was the one we've already noticed we've already noted to reiterate that sarah would have a son she laughs god calls her on it but then immediately following that he tells abraham what he's about to do to sodom and gomorrah that's the rest of genesis 18 and i think that's really interesting one thing we can already draw from the just the structure of the story in genesis 18 and following is that god is at work in the world doing seemingly very different things he came to announce the destruction of two wicked cities and the birth of a child and in god's mind those are not so very different at all what god is about to do in the womb of sarah is not at all unrelated to what he's doing with the nations of canaan we see this even as he begins to tell abraham what he's about to do in genesis 18 verses 17 to 19 he he says shall i tell abraham what i'm about to do and he says well i am about to make him a great and mighty nation i know that he's going to command his children to obey me and and my blessing is going to extend through his family to all the nations of the earth yeah i'm going to tell him but but notice abraham's family and the fact of his children is tied up in national politics god discusses his plan to destroy sodom and gomorrah with abraham because he plans to make abraham a great and mighty nation and he plans to bless all the nations of the earth through his kids so this is all in the background then of that one verse about sarah obeying her husband and calling him lord what god is up to with kings and governors and nations is not unrelated to what he's doing in our homes and in our families the story actually goes on so there's a there's there's actually two tumultuous events that are right sort of in this sandwich between the announcement of isaac he's going to come and then isaac's arrival the first one is the story of sodom and gomorrah that we've just noted remember when god announces that to abraham abraham famously pleads with god not to destroy the righteous with the wicked he talks god all the way down to 10. if there's 10 in the city you'll spare it of course there's not even 10 in the city there's not even four apparently in the city but god in his mercy spares lot's family and and and they're they get out of town and the destruction falls following that we learn that the nations of moab and ammon originate from the fearful incest of lot's daughters so you just have notice this just sort of by the way you have two cities that got nuked two wicked cities that got destroyed and right on the heels of that two more wicked cities are born right moab and ammon are going to be great trouble for israel for centuries to come then the second big story the political tumult that's going on right before isaac is born is abraham's sojourn in the land of gerrard where abraham says that sarah is his sister and king abimelech takes her into his harem genesis 20. then god appears to abimelech the king announces that he's a dead man because he's taken another man's wife abimelech appeals to god's justice god spares abimelech who restores sarah to abraham and then the next verse after that story ends and it says and the lord visited sarah as he had said for sarah conceived and bear abraham a son in his old age genesis 21 1-2 so this whole context is about kings and cities and nations and politics it's about the struggle and destruction and birth of wicked nations and then the punchline is the birth of this little baby to an old barren couple that's the punch line in fact you might remember that isaac's name means laughter that's what his name means isaac means laughter when when god first showed up and told abraham no it's not ishmael it's going to be isaac it's going to be a son born from sarah do you remember what it says it says that abraham fell on his face laughing and then and then god said yeah and the son's name's gonna be laughter and apparently that runs in the family apparently abraham didn't give sarah heads up i don't know but sarah hears and begins laughing and so in the midst of this you've got nations raging and churning while kings and cities plot and grasp and god is bringing all their plans to nothing and he's keeping his promises to his people and doing what seems impossible and giving children to old couples and laughter is being born into the world i think there's a lot here for us we have nations churning we have authorities doing what seems best to them and we're walking through this trying to figure out how to be faithful to jesus and so that context though peter hasn't just said you know i've got a word for wives he's talking about living in this world the whole section opened with now there are kings and there are governors and there are ordinances and we are to be in submission to them and slaves even to unbelieving and harsh masters following christ likewise wives likewise husbands but again why that story in particular peter points wives to the holy women of old who adorn themselves with gentle and quiet spirits like sarah who obeyed abraham calling him lord whose children you are as long as you do well are not afraid of any terror can one of the obvious oddities of referring to this story is that it says that sarah was afraid why did she lie it says she was afraid peter why this story well one first clear answer is that sarah repented sarah repented she actually says right after isaac's birth in genesis 21 god has made me laugh and all who hear will laugh with me the baby's born and sarah says this is hilarious i mean i thought it was funny but this is really funny i did have a baby we're too old for this god kept his promise everybody who hears about this is gonna laugh with me she clearly looks back at her own fear and her own doubt and unbelief and she sees it as funny she sees how funny it is god was telling a joke on her god was telling a joke on her unbelief and now even her unbelieving laughter is part of god's joke there's a sense in which all repented sin is really like that all of our sin is like sarah's laughter and unbelief all our sin is an attempt to run the world ourselves which is dumb which is hilarious right that's what you're doing when you're sinning pastor wilson sometimes likes to say that sin is temporary insanity like all sin is temporary insanity like for a minute you're thinking i know what this world needs it needs me to get angry it needs me to say a harsh word it needs me to lie it needs me to steal it needs me to hide something it needs me to lust that's what this world needs no it doesn't you're crazy but that's what all sin is all sin is grasping control of the world or thinking we are i know i'll run this place that's hilarious that's funny and god and his graciousness and and wisdom when we cut we come to our senses we say that's crazy that's insane that was foolish please forgive me and we turn back and we humble ourselves and repent god already has forgiveness waiting for us and in his infinite wisdom he even weaves our rebellion into his story he makes the barrenness of our sin and rebellion fruitful right that's what he's doing we repent and we're like and even after we repent it's like that's gross that's disgusting that's awful i can't believe i did that and god says i can work with that i can work with that because there's nothing there it's barren it can't give any life it's death it's gunk it's gross it's sin and god says i work with nothing all the time i can work with your nothingness i can work with your barrenness dead a dead womb past bearing age i can work with that in fact when sarah laughs in the tent god's response is is anything too difficult for the lord can't he work with you can't he work with your gunk your mess your nothingness he specializes in it and so the joke is on us we try to run our own world even and even then god's still running everything like sarah we're tempted to think that god can't do anything with our barren hearts our remaining sin our past folly in rebellion but god says is anything too hard for the lord and if sarah can look back in faith at her unbelieving laughter as god's good joke on her then the same thing can be said about her incredulous address of her husband as her lord would she have pleasure with her husband her lord being so old and the answer was a glorious and hilarious yeah yes because god is the lord because god is the lord she sees the impotence of her lord his weakness in his old age but on the other side of him is god the lord is anything too difficult for him and this really is the key i think to understanding why peter sees this is actually such a potent story to point at it's not like oops i guess that's the only place she said my lord well you get the idea she was generally a respectful wife no i don't think that's it at all i don't think that this is an accident i think peter sees in this moment a number of things packed together remember all christian authority and submission to authority is in the lord this is all through the new testament over and over again or you know this servants obey your masters as you obey christ wives submit to your own husbands as to the lord children obey your parents in the lord citizens submit to magistrates who get their authority from the lord parishioners do the same with elders and pastors for christians it's always and only in the lord that's where all authority comes from and that's why we submit to any authority at all because of the lord because of christ because of jesus and there is real hierarchy in this world god does assign us parts but compared to god all our hierarchy is like an empire of ants and some of the ants wear uniforms right compared to god compared to god that's our power that's our authority that's that's our station some of us ants wear uniforms we're like a compared to god we're a parliament of owls just doing our thing trying to be important and fancy god is the son we're all moons every everyone the only glory you have the only light you have is from god it's real authority it's real glory but but there's a sense in which we are always like kids playing in a clubhouse in our father's backyard it matters it matters because he gives us our assignments he gives us our parts but there's really an important way in which we have to remember we're just people we're just people we're not that important supreme court justices presidents police officers husbands pastors teachers mothers and fathers what is man that god is mindful of him we're we were made out of dirt okay some of us were made out of ribs that came from dirt we're flowers that fade it's real glory but it's real glory because we're just little tiny people and god is great because god is the lord and this is why our lordship and our authority and our submission and obedience really always have to have a big grin on them it's a little funny actually it's a lot funny we're people and god says you're gonna be a dad and all those little people are gonna look up to you isn't that hilarious they think you know what you're doing and here this is a woman you're responsible for her until you die that's hilarious that's funny a human soul for the rest of my life and here you're going to be a pastor and elder these are all the sheep you've got to bring them to heaven i'll ask you about them when you get there that's funny god says no you're gonna do it and here you're gonna be a judge you're gonna be a president you're gonna be a mayor okay there you go one two three break that's hilarious there's always a grin on our face who are we we're just people we're kids in our dad's backyard he gives us assignments they're real assignments they matter but all of it should be held with a grin with a chuckle with a laugh all our authority is like an old man an old woman trying to have a baby dad that's what you're doing all right raising your children and the nurturing admonition of the lord good luck loving your wife like christ loves the church you got that it's it's like sarah and abraham trying to have a baby it doesn't make any sense it's weak it's frail any actual authority that we have that we exercise for good it's not really ours it's all a gift and the central gift of christian authority is pointing to jesus that's the gift it's not for me it's christ it's not for me it's god i don't have this it's not for me that's the only good you can do as a as an authority as a christian it's not about it's god it's jesus he gave me this authority i'm trying i don't know what i'm doing can our authority do anything well true christian authority recognizes that it only gets its authority from christ and this means though that true christians submission to authority sees how flimsy and purely how flimsy purely earthly authority is there's a sense in which as we submit to other people as we are called to do we should laugh a little not in a disrespectful way not a but this is you know this is we're people now sarah only had half the equation right i think that's why it can be pointed to she all she sees is her husband my lord and she sees the weakness and that's true human authority is weak pastors are weak human magistrates are weak fathers and mothers are weak that's half the equation you're going to do what with what but it's only half because the other half of the equation is is there anything too difficult for the lord all christian submission sees the weakness of human authority and then sees jesus standing behind it no amount of human strutting amounts to anything in the side of the lord but in the lord's hands little people can do great things so apply this to christ and politics it's somewhat easy to read this broader passage superficially as though peter is merely saying make sure you obey everything make sure you obey all the rules all the ordinances they say and so this is one of the texts used by christians to argue that if the governor or premier or judge says churches can't meet then they shouldn't this is one of the texts used to justify mandates and lockdowns and so on now it's true that we're free to obey authorities and things indifferent and we're free to obey them when they're not commanding us to sin but we don't have to and to the extent that even their indifferent things are leading us away from christ there's more it's more and more incumbent upon us not to peter says that our goal is to do good doing good is not defined by human authorities doing good is not it's not defined by magistrates or even fathers or husbands or pastors or judges doing good is defined by the only one who is good god himself first peter 2 15 says this is the will of god that we may silence the ignorance of foolish men by doing good this includes silencing the ignorance of foolish magistrates foolish masters foolish husbands foolish parents that by doing good we may silence the ignorance of foolish men this whole text is not about mindless submission it's a text about holy resistance how does a woman stand up to a man who's not obeying the word how do citizens stand up to magistrates who are not obeying the word this is a text about overcoming evil with good and at the center of it is christ following christ he left us an example follow his example and what do we find why did christ suffer christ suffered at the hands of soldiers governors and priests duly installed authorities why because he wouldn't obey them he wouldn't obey their various ordinances of man he walked right over their sabbath ordinances they met they took minutes they they voted and jesus didn't care he disregarded their cleanliness laws he did good right on top of all their evil ordinances why because he came to do the will of his father and he did that in order to break the back of the greatest tyranny of all that we being dead to sin might live under righteousness verse 24. all human tyranny originates in human hearts and so christ came to silence that foolish tyrant in our hearts by dying and drawing all our sin and guilt and shame unto himself in order that it might all die in him and so it did and why did christ suffer because in his righteousness he was in full submission to the will of his father committing himself to the one who judges righteously he suffered because he obeyed the highest authority of all this righteous obedience to god brought jesus into direct conflict with all the strutting authorities of his day the authorities who thought they were something and made up all kinds of foolish laws and rules how did christ resist not with cursing not with reviling but with blessing the resistance of christ was full of peace and joy and this is because the obedience of christ was an appeal to the highest authority of all the shepherd and bishop of his soul the shepherd and bishop of his soul there's not a higher authority than that there's not a higher authority than god himself our resistance imitates sarah who learned to laugh about her own sin but also the impotence of man and the power of god over all what god is up to with kings and governors is not unrelated to what he is up to in our homes and in our families and god is lord of all the details let's pray for bob real quick father we pray that you would be with bob we don't know what's going on right now but we know that he's has cancer and he's battling it so we pray that you would be with him now and with those who are taking care of him in jesus name amen what god is up to in the world is not unrelated to what he's doing in our families what god is up to with nations and kingdoms and magistrates is not unrelated to what he's doing in our homes and families and god is lord of all the details he does not destroy the righteous with the wicked god does not destroy the righteous with the wicked he's busy restoring and healing the righteous blessing the righteous and making them fruitful even while he carries out divine bombing runs on the wicked and god's judgments fall with laser precision god's judgments fall with laser precision his mercy is far greater than we can imagine he saved lot he saved lot's daughters he saved abimelech he saved you how is god governing this world remember we are the righteous only because of the laser precision of his grace we were all the wicked we deserved hell and judgment we deserved we deserved all of that but god in his sovereign mercy has saved us god is not stuck god is not stuck is there anything that he cannot do so do justice in your homes like you're involved in the great cosmic war because you are obey your husbands see their frailty and follow them as they follow christ love your wives love them and honor them see their frailty and honor them as daughters of christ honor your parents are they perfect no are they frail yes do they know what they're doing i told you the secret earlier no they don't and god says obey them anyways honor them anyways why because you see christ standing behind them and bring up your children in the lord keeping your eyes fixed on the king have you been given authority then remember who you are you're just a person you're just a person whom god has put there you have nothing except what has been given to you you can do nothing apart from christ wield your authority with the appropriate grin or just people or just people so confess your sins quickly repent of all your sin quickly forgive quickly remove the logs from your own eyes quickly so you can see clearly we live in a crazy age a crazy time do you want to see clearly confess your sin get right forgive quickly and and it this all ties together even even dealing with your sin quickly there's there's ways in which people can get they can chase their own tales when it comes to their sin they fail or they've been failing or maybe failing for a long time they they repent and then they kick themselves for having been able to fall like that before and then they're they're kicking themselves for kicking themselves for falling like that and then this is just like the silly dog chasing the tail and sometimes in my office i will gently lean over my desk and and with all the love in my heart i'll say you're not that important you're not that important it's actually wonderful news like all your sin all your failures all your goof ups all your face plants do you think they're really going to get in the way of the lord of the universe do you think you've ruined his plan to save the world you're not that important it's really good news yeah deal with your sin christ died for it deal with it confess it forgive quickly move on he is the god who raises the dead he's the god who raises the dead he gives old couples babies he's not limited by you be happy with being small and insignificant compared to him the hero of the story is christ the hero of the story is jesus not us that's all we're doing pointing to him have you been afraid we've been living in fear repent of that too christ is lord he is lord of it all there is not one detail outside of his control you can rest in him he's he's controlling nations all the way down to zygotes right big and small he's running it all rest in him rest in him as your laughter becomes cynical and bitter or is it the laughter of faith and repentance and forgiveness remember you are the children of abraham and sarah by faith in the lord jesus do you think about that you are children of abraham and sarah by faith in jesus you're their children is anything too difficult for the lord how'd you get here what are we doing here in this family where abraham and sarah are now our great great great grandparents hold your head up high as the little people that we are proverbs 31 talking about the virtuous woman says strength and honor are her clothing she laughs at the future laugh at the future you are clothed in jesus which means you have his strength and his honor the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel against the lord and against his christ and what is he doing it says he who sits in the heavens laughs all authority is from the lord of heaven therefore the same standard applies to all authority it's all from him and so our submission to lawful authority is in the lord and only in the lord it's all the same a wife to husband parishioners to pastors citizens to magistrates we have only one lord he gives this authority it's good but it's from him we know their boss we know their lord and we're following him when he calls us to resist or disobey any earthly authority we do it gladly with a smile not a snarl with blessing not cursing and when we obey we do it because they're being obedient to jesus we have hearts full of joy christ is the greater isaac he is the promised son who came back from the barren womb of the grave he's the great laughter of god and he's our lord and so we laugh because he laughs and we stand up tall because he told us to and he is our lord father and god thank you for sending jesus thank you for his lordship over all our families over this church over our city and over our nation father i pray that you would impress upon us that right humility that teaches us to laugh at your goodness laugh at your greatness and how small and frail we are and stand courageous in our obedience to you unafraid we ask for this in jesus name who taught us to pray singing the importance of the lord's supper is that it is an objective truth it is an immovable pillar in the midst of the shaking sands of our turbulent emotions cultural upheaval global uncertainties here is solid ground upon which your faith might stand and stand firm a mistake that many make is to acknowledge a doctrine of salvation that is scripturally sound i am saved by christ alone they nod along vigorously and would gladly affirm this is true and of course this is marvelously and eternally true however when confronted with the question of their own assurance of this salvation they go looking at all the dusty nooks and all the cobwebbed crannies of their own feelings the ground of your salvation and assurance of your salvation are not in you just as your righteousness filthy as it is stained by sin as it is is not the ground of your justification neither are your inner feelings the ground of your assurance your salvation is here your assurance is here christ saves sinners porn junkies sodomites religious hypocrites women and doctors who abort babies the politicians who advocate for it liars murderers cheats and idolaters christ came to forgive such sinners who turn in faith to him he came not only to save sinners great and small but that they all might rest assured in the objective salvation he won for them when so great a savior is set before you don't draw back come to him your salvation is a gift your assurance is a gift receive it now with the simple faith of a grateful heart don't try to gauge whether you feel assured rather ask do i believe what god says and this is what he says all who come to me i will in no wise cast out so come in faith and welcome to jesus christ let's pray father we give thanks that not only our salvation is shown forth to us here and this broken bread and poured out wine but you speak words of kind assurance to us by telling us that we are in christ and christ by the holy spirit is in us so we give thanks for this bread and this wine in jesus name and amen the charge is this as someone once said holiness is loving what god loves and hating what god hates and i would add to that it's also laughing at what god laughs at in other words uh you need to laugh at god's dad jokes okay if god laughs in the face of the tyrants and all their imaginations all their feeble endeavors to build empires of dust and god laughs at their strivings god laughs at their folly then we too should look at our father and laugh at what he laughs at and rejoice in what he rejoices in so now here with believing hearts the benediction of god our father now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us to him be glory in the church by christ jesus to all generations forever and ever and amen [Music]

Channel: Christ Kirk

Views: 433

Rating: 4.818182 out of 5

Keywords: Christ Church, ChristKirk, Doug Wilson, Douglas Wilson, Canon Press, CrossPolitic, Toby Sumpter, Moscow Idaho, Moscow, Psalm Singing, Reformed, Calvinist, Reformed theology, CREC, Blog and Mablog

Id: Z-WVkm9I-Q8

Length: 44min 3sec (2643 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 07 2021