A Portrait of Christian Character and Conduct (2)

Main Goal “My Goal for us tonight is to look at 5 Characteristics of Christian Conduct that when practiced help build up believers and give rise to the conversion of unbelievers.

Introduction

Hi Everyone! My name is Brian Young for those of you who don’t know me. It is my pleasure to be here and to open God’s Word with you. My wife Rachael and I have been at Canyon for a little over 6 months. If i haven’t met you yet, i would love to meet you later tonight. If you have your Bible, go ahead and turn to 1 Peter 3:8-12. Lets read this section, I will pray and then we will get into the sermon.

Read 1 Peter 3:8-12

Pray

Story of Marvin.

“No one really cares. They care but not to the extent of getting in your shoes. You have to put in the work, endure the pain, embrace the joys. It’s all you and only you”

Emphasize- Christian Character and Christian Conduct is a portrait of Christ the the world. We are literally walking images of Christ’s work to the world. The question is what image of Christ are people going to see when they look at you?

Main Goal “My Goal for us tonight is to look at 5 Characteristics of Christian Conduct that when practiced help build up believers and give rise to the conversion of unbelievers.

1. Unity Rooted In Brotherly Love

2. A Compassionate Willingness

3. A Humble Posture

4. A Gospel Perspective

5. A Heavenly Gaze

As we go through these 5 points, the intent is to be super practical so you and I can easily apply these characteristics to our lives as we seek to be a good picture of Christ!

1. Unity Rooted In Brotherly Love

Give Brief Overview

The command for unity is for believers to live in harmony with one another. Remember the context of 1 Peter. These believers are suffering persecution from the world around them. The need for the believers to be united cannot be understated. There are many verses in the Bible that command believers to be united and that show the benefit of unity.

1 Corinthians 1:10 “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.”

Acts 4:32 “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.”

When life gets tough, it is especially easy for disunity to creep into a church and threaten the body. Just two years ago, every church in the world experienced the reality of Covid.

Covid was like a stick of dynamite that was thrown into every church congregation in the world that tested the unity of the congregation. No matter what a church decided to do or not to do isn’t my point, but i think we all can recall some point during those hard times, seeing disunity within our own churches or struggling with pursuing unity within our own relationships with people.

I think it is important to quickly understand what unity is not. Unity is not a suppression of the truth. Unity is not an acceptance of sin for the sake of being accepted by the culture. Unity is not being exact copies of our favorite preacher.

Unity is rooted in love for Christ and love for one another!

Brotherly love is an amazing application to pursuing unity with one another! How do you become united in mind and brotherly love? Well, you have to spend time with people right? Spend time with one another inside and outside the church is a great way to pursue unity. Talk about what the Lord is doing in your lives. Be a part of a small group and serve with one another.

Colossians 3:14 “And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

Unity is contagious. Believers who love each other, can’t get enough of Christian fellowship. This doesn’t mean that we don’t have differences or that we always necessarily agree on everything. There are true believers who believe differently then we do. Unity rooted in love accepts differences when possible but remains united in gospel truth.

Non believers will look at a united church and wonder what in the world do those people have that make them want to spend so much time with one another. Non believers will look at brothers and sisters in Christ and wonder, how can i be a part of a community of people like that. Let us be United in Brotherly Love and you will be a powerful encouragement to each other and to the outside world.

John 13:35 “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

2. A Compassionate Willingness

Where did I get a compassionate willingness? I combined sympathy and a tender heart together to capture the essence of what Peter is encouraging the believers to have amongst one another.

Peter is saying to have a heart that loves people and cares to act upon that love.

The greek word for sympathy conveys feeling the same emotions as the other person.

A few months before moving to Los Angeles for Seminary, I was working as an intern at my old home church and i helped serve in the counseling department. I was in charge of handling the phone calls when people were interested in biblical counseling. Each phone call would last around 30 minutes and within those 30 minutes, people would share with me what they were seeking counsel for. I remember a few stories where i could feel the hurt and sadness that these people were going through. Now i get pretty emotional easily, I cry when watching Disney movies but that is beside the point.

The sense of feeling the emotions that brothers and sisters are feeling is what Peter is telling the believers to have. You may not have gone through what another believer has but just being there for that person, goes a long way.

Romans 12:15 “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.”

I think as Christians, we can be well intentioned but way to quick to want to fix someone’s problem. Often we want to think of the “perfect” Bible verse that in our minds will automatically help this person and fix their problems so that they can focus their mind on God and everything will be better instantly. Again, this is usually well intentioned but i don’t think that is the compassionate willingness Peter is conveying.

I once heard a Pastor say, “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

The Bible is the ultimate cure because God is the ultimate healer of the hurting. But that does not mean that we as Christians need to lead with a Bible verse. Showing sympathy can look like being there for someone and telling them, I’m praying for you and I’m here for you.

The Tender Heart that Peter speaks of is an interesting Word in the greek. It is “eusplagchnos” Try sayin that 5 times fast. The word is translated having strong bowels. Weird translation right? How does having strong bowels equate to tender heart or compassionate willingness? Well it doesn’t mean that you had a bad burrito. The image is being so moved within your insides by care for another individual, that you are moved to act.

A good illustration of this kind of compassion is when Jesus feeds the 5 thousand in Mark 6:30-44, Jesus and his disciples are about to go away by themselves to rest but a large crowd sees them and follows them to where they were going to rest. And in Mark 6:34, “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things.”

Jesus had every right to say come back tomorrow or hey, i’m with my disciples, please leave us be. But he doesn’t say that at all. He was moved to compassion because they were like sheep that were astray, so Jesus did something about it and he taught them many things!

To believers, this shows the love of Christ to one another when we come along side each other in times of rejoicing and in times of sorrow. We weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice, all the while displaying a compassionate willingness to serve one another in word and deed.

To the non believers, this will impact the way we evangelize to people with a heart that cares enough for them that we will share the message of the Gospel with them and when possible meet their physical needs as James calls believers to do in James 2:15-16 when he says “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?”

Let us be known as Christians who have a compassionate willingness that loves one another well and that stands out to an unbelieving world.

3. A Humble Posture

We have looked at having unity with believers rooted in love, and a compassionate willingness, and now Peter says to have a humble mindset, the NASB says a humble spirit.

Being humble is hard isn’t it? Raise your hand if you think are humble? (Hopefully Gets Laughs) Just kidding!

What does having a humble posture look like in times of persecution? Given the context of 1 Peter, I don’t think the believers were in danger of looking at themselves and thinking “I’m better than all of the other people around me”. Maybe that was the case for some but I think Peter is focusing on another aspect of humility that we often miss as believers.

I think the temptation in the midst of hard times is to think that I have the worst situation of anyone around me. We might not say that out loud but our lives can reflect that if we aren’t careful. Thinking that our trial is the worst that it can ever be in a form of pride. It is a false humility that looks lowly and humble from the outside, but it isn’t, it can be selfish. I am not saying that it is selfish to feel sad or the cry, please don’t hear me say that. Jesus cried over the death of his friend Lazarus. He knew that he was going to raise Lazarus, and yet he still cried.

The point Peter is encouraging believers in is to be known as someone who doesn’t think less of themselves as a person or their situation, but to be known as someone who puts others before themselves. True humility is focused on others, not focused on yourself.

Humility is hard to live out right? Just when you think you are humble, its gone isn’t it? So how do we live a humble life that leads to the encouragement of believers and the conversion of unbelievers? I think the answer is the same for both. Remember that Jesus died for you when you were his enemy and he saved you. If you live with that constant reminder, you are more likely to live a humble life without even realizing it. Believers will notice it in you and want to live like that, and non believers will look at you and see a believer who doesn’t think of himself or herself better than them and then you will be in an amazing situation to evangelize to them! Let us be known by others of having a humble posture.

4. A Gospel Perspective

The fourth characteristic that makes up the portrait of Christian Conduct is having a Gospel Perspective. A Gospel Perspective is an awareness of how our actions affect our Gospel Witness towards others.

Look at back verse 9 with me. Peter says do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling but on the contrary bless, for to this you were called.”

Where have we seen those exact words before? Look back up to verses 22-23 of chapter 2. When Jesus was reviled he did not revile in return. People spoke ill of Jesus. When he was beaten and eventually killed, he did not threaten. Jesus had a gospel perspective. He knew that what he came to do was to die in the place of sinners of that cross so that many would come to Him through his sacrifice on the cross. He knew the end goal.

We too are to have a gospel perspective. When we are slandered for our faith or in general, how we respond will have gospel implications. When people do wicked and evil things to us for our faith or in general, how we respond will have gospel implications. Especially in times of trials and persecution, it is so easy for us to respond in a way that justifies ourselves. We feel like since we are going through a hard time, we deserve to make it right by getting back or getting even with someone who hurt us. What did Jesus do in those hard times, Verse 23 of chapter 2, he continued to entrust himself to the one who judges justly. God promises that in this life or the life to come that HE will right every wrong

2 Corinthians 5:10 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”

Romans 12:19 “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

Peter gives us a gospel perspective of not only what not to do, but how to respond to evil and reviling from our enemies. He tells us to bless them. What Peter means is to speak good of them, pray for their salvation, don’t slander them back. Look at them with the eyes of God in Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them, ‘As I live!’ declares the Lord God, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways!”

Often, having a good gospel perspective comes down to how we respond in our speech to others. In verse 10-12, Peter quotes Psalm 34. Look at verses 10-12 with me.

“Whoever desires to 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 are open to their prayer.

But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

He quotes a Psalm written by David when he is facing severe persecution from Saul. Peter, who remember is writing to Christians facing persecution, references this Psalm to address how believer’s are to respond to persecution. Peter says that if you as a believer desire to love life and see good days, you must keep your tongue from evil and speaking deceit, also to turn away from evil and pursue peace.

Jesus is our ultimate example in how this is lived out. Obviously we are not perfect like Jesus is, but we are called to the same gospel goal that Jesus established. Peter doesn’t mean that your life will be full good times or that you won’t ever face persecution. Again, look at the life of Jesus. He means that by having a gospel perspective and conducting yourself accordingly, you will be able to love life and see good days as the Lord works all things together for good to those who love Him and are called according to his purpose.

A gospel perspective will inevitably lead to loving life and seeing good days. Maybe not good according to our standards but good as God sees fit to bless us with.

Let a gospel perspective be like a filter that all of your actions and responses go through. (Demonstrate what you mean!)

5. A Heavenly Gaze

Our final characteristic for Christian conduct is a heavenly gaze. Look at verse 12 with me. 12  For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,

and his ears are open to their prayer.

But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

Peter, by using the words of David reminds us that the eyes of the Lord are in the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer. This last characteristic is like a bow that ties all of these other ones together. It zooms out from us to God.

God’s eyes are on the righteous. Other times in the Scriptures, this same language is used to depict God’s judgmental gaze as he sees all that is done. Peter is not conveying judgement here but a loving gaze. God sees the righteousness that is being lived out by His people at all times and if that weren’t encouraging enough, Peter reminds us that God hears our prayers!

Christians need a heavenly gaze to the God who sees their righteousness being lived out in a world that is anti-Christian. Christians need to be reminded that although we are not saved by righteous works, God delights to see us living out righteous works and that he hears our prayers. Whether those are prayers of frustration, hurt, despair, or praise. He hears them all and he supplies us all with the means to keep on living for him and being a display of Christian conduct to a watching world!

The face of the Lord is against those who do evil. This is both a reminder that God will judge the unrighteous for their wicked acts, but let it serve as an invitation to live in a way that the enemies of God might one day be the friends of God through redemption in the gospel!

Conclusion