1 Peter 4:1-6

Introduction

The Parenting Mindset

Becoming a parent for the very first time requires you to go through a lot of changes, and make new decisions you’ve never made before. When Lauren I and were pregnant with Charis, we sailed full steam ahead into baby planning mode. We flipped through books (yes, multiple) about pregnancy, labor and delivery, and becoming a father and mother. We researched hundreds of different types of car seats, strollers, eating utensils, clothes, monitors, cribs and beds, and baby safing equipment. We went through an online curriculum about the best birthing positions and breathing techniques, how your partner should and shouldn’t help, and how to swaddle a child properly. We gutted a room, re-painted it, and set it up as a nursery. We picked out names. Because we had healthy expectations, we prepared effectively for preparing for a newborn. So when Charis was finally born, we weren’t entirely shocked by things that happen in delivery rooms, or that babies wake up every two hours ready to nurse, or that they can go through seemingly endless outfit changes in a single day. And we were committed to give our child the healthiest environment we could. So imagine for a second what life could have been like if we had no expectations or knowledge about giving birth to a new human being. Lauren may have been in the delivery room completely shocked that delivery is actually one of the most painful natural processes a human can endure. Or that a child drinks only milk and needs to feed around the clock. What if I grilled a juicy tomahawk steak to welcome my new child into the world? Or imagine how devastating it would have been for me to learn in the moment that I would get about four hours of sleep a night for two months straight? Or what if we actually weren’t as committed as we thought we were and decided shortly after giving birth that weren’t interested in being parents anymore, which is both sad and true in some real circumstances.

In life, preparing for a major event like having a child is important so that you know what to expect and can commit yourself to thrive through change and difficulty.

Maybe you also can think of a time when you felt unprepared or didn’t know what to expect about a difficult moment you were facing.

As we continue on in 1st Peter this morning, Peter is going to say a few important things about why our mindset as followers of Jesus is so important.

Hook

Main Point: Adopt the mindset of Christ, despite any opposition that may come, to receive life promised through the Spirit.

Body

Recap

It’s been several months at least since we started the book of 1 Peter, so let me just remind you that this book was most likely written by the apostle Peter to a group of Christians living throughout different provinces of ancient Asia Minor who were facing increasing marginalization, social ostracism, and different forms of persecution to lean into their identity as chosen by God to be residents aliens, living in the world but foreign to the ideas and values of the world. Despite the increasing opposition, they were to live lives marked by holiness and faithfulness to Jesus as they await His return. Peter promises throughout the book letter that their suffering would be worth it.

Text

We pick up this morning in 1 Peter 4:

1 Peter 4:1–6 CSB

1 Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same understanding—because the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin—2 in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for God’s will. 3 For there has already been enough time spent in doing what the Gentiles choose to do: carrying on in unrestrained behavior, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and lawless idolatry. 4 They are surprised that you don’t join them in the same flood of wild living—and they slander you. 5 They will give an account to the one who stands ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this reason the gospel was also preached to those who are now dead, so that, although they might be judged in the flesh according to human standards, they might live in the spirit according to God’s standards.

1. Adopt the mindset of Christ

Peter starts this section off with a clear command that will help us chart a course through this passage this morning: “arm yourselves also with the same understanding [some translations say mindset, attitude, purpose of way of thinking] [as Jesus]—because the one who suffers in the flesh is finished with sin—2 in order to live the remaining time in the flesh no longer for human desires, but for God’s will”. Peter just finished speaking of how Jesus’ suffered in the previous chapter. Last week Sheridan preached through end of chapter 3, which said this:

1 Peter 3:16–18 CSB

16 ...when you are accused, those who disparage your good conduct in Christ will be put to shame [because of your gentleness and reverence]. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil. 18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit,

Peter proposes Jesus as the model for how to suffer, not just how to suffer torture and bodily violence like he suffered in his death but also how to suffer rejection, criticism, and opposition as a result of his faithfulness. In other words, Peter’s not just teaching his audience how to die like Jesus, but how to live like Jesus.

There are three aspects of Jesus’ mindset I want to mention this morning:.

Jesus expected difficulty and opposition. Jesus knew when he began his ministry that it was going to be the hardest task in history. He knew that he would face opposition from the Jewish and Roman leaders and would need to tell a lot of people a lot of hard truths. In Matthew 16:24, Jesus describes following him this way: “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up the most shameful and excruciatingly painful instrument of torture in history (cross), and follow me.” This mindset is so counterhuman. By nature, we seek pleasure and comfort and avoids pain and discomfort.

We recently traveled to Pennsylvania and rented a car during our time there—a hybrid Jeep Wrangler, which was surprisingly the cheapest option. The first night we arrived, it was less than 30 degress and I was struggling to get the car seats into the car with frozen hands. When I got into the car to drive, I was glad to discover a heated steering wheel. I’m amazed at how much detail goes in to providing a comfortable experience, even with something as mundane as traveling.

Jesus prepared his heart and mind to make difficult choices in a moment. Luke 4 describes the Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness before the start of his ministry. Satan tries to lure Jesus away three times to give us his power or take the easy way out, and Jesus responds each time from Scripture. Satan shot out these half truths, and remained composed and resolute by rebuking him with Scripture that he previously had locked away. When faced with theological challenges from Jewish leaders, he didn’t balk or retreat from their challenge. He had reasoned deeply with God and the Scriptures and knew his convictions, so he was prepared to respond. Jesus prepared for the challenges of ministry by withdrawing to pray.

Jesus was resolute. Thankfully for us, Jesus committed himself to live faithfully as a servant of the Lord and never strayed from his commitment. Was Jesus tempted? Yes. Hebrews 4 declares that Jesus was tempted in every way we are. But did Jesus sin? No, because he was unwavering in his commitment to faithfulness. Imagine where we would be today if Jesus copped out at the last minute, as if he made his own way out when he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane for God to provide a different way but wasn’t given one.

How do you typically respond when you face opposition or difficulties because of your faith? What might it look like for you to prepare your heart and mind like Jesus did?

2. Despite any opposition that may come

We need this mindset modeled in Jesus to face the challenges to holiness that this text articulates: Spiritual temptation and physical opposition.

a. Spiritual Temptation

Like Jesus, we too face temptation. Every day we face choices to live in ways that reflect the world’s values, to satiate our desires, or to honor God’s desires by choosing holiness and bringing the presence of God into our lives and our communities. The reality for those of us who follow Jesus is that your life now should look differently than your life before you started following Jesus. You should have less sin in your life now than you did before.

“In order to know and worship God rightly we must have our desires transformed. They must be transformed...because, bent by sin, we have little sense of what it is that we should rightly want.”—Stanley Hauerwas, The Peaceable Kingdom

Look what Peter says back in verse 3:

1 Peter 4:3 CSB

3 For there has already been enough time spent in doing what the Gentiles choose to do: carrying on in unrestrained behavior, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and lawless idolatry.

Before we started following Jesus, we lived how we wanted, indulging our sinful desires. But now, with this new mindset and a heart filled with the Holy Spirit, we conduct our lives differently, rejecting our own sinful desires and choosing to honor God’s desires instead.

All of us have something in that list that was a part of our life before following Jesus. Maybe you never got drunk or indulged in a party, free-love lifestyle, but we have in our hearts placed an idol above God. Even if nothing on this list resonates with you, you can add something from your own life that does resonate with you to the list. Becoming like Jesus by adopting his mindset requires that sin grows smaller and smaller in our lives over time. Christianity isn’t only about believing the right things about God, the things that the Bible teaches. Christianity also requires that we live the right way, like Jesus did—resisting evil and choosing good. This necessarily means that we stop living the wrong way.

Darcy quote: “God will reveal the hideousness of sin but we have to have the eyes to see it.”

Your holiness, your faithfulness has this transformative quality to it. We choose to live holy lives not only because God commands it and we want to honor him and be in a healthy relationship with him, but because your holiness has the power to transform the spaces you do your living because it effects the people around you and brings the Spirit of God in direct contact with them. Just think briefly about how your resistance to temptation in a given moment closes a door where sin enters our physical earth. I am really excited for season 5 of Stranger Things to come out later this year and witness the conclusion of such a phenomenal show. In Stranger Things, in case you aren’t aware, there is an alternate copy of our universe which is called The Upside Down that is ruled by a dark monster named Vecna, and the show is built on the premise that there are holes in the fabric of our universe and The Upside Down that allow transportation between universes. There are so many scenes in that show where the heroes are trying to close portals and push the evil our of our universe back into the Upside Down. Your resistance to temptation pushes evil out of our universe where it can kill and destroy you and those around you and back into the realm of hell from whence it came. The intentional choices you make to live boldly for the gospel shrinks the power of darkness, as if now goodness is stepping through the portal from our universe to invade The Upside Down.

Expect temptation by knowing your weaknesses and triggers, prepare to combat temptation with prayer, boundaries, communities, etc, and stay committed to resist sin, no matter the cost.

What are some specific areas in your life where the desires of the world have been more attractive than the call to live holy?

b. Physical opposition

1 Peter 4:4–5 CSB

4 They are surprised that you don’t join them in the same flood of wild living—and they slander you. 5 They will give an account to the one who stands ready to judge the living and the dead.

What’s interesting about the list of sins that Peter mentions specifically in verse 3 is that they were woven into the fabric of the religious culture at the time. Parties and events like these weren’t just happening on the weekend in Vegas. This was how you worshiped the gods of the pagan religions, how you paid respect to the emperor, and how you prayed for the success and abundance of the nation-state of Rome. Pagan temples were known to be places of debauchery and hedonism. Peter’s Gentile readers would have most likely participated freely in this lifestyle.

Imagine with me now, then, that you’re a first-century convert to Christianity coming out of this lifestyle. You want so badly to follow Jesus and participate in the community of his people, to live no longer for these desires but for God’s will. But a group of your friends stop by on the way down to the local pagan temple to attend a ritualistic worship festival, and you explain to them that you can no longer participate with them because of your new religious beliefs, a religion wildly different from their pagan religion that teaches its followers that their is a King over the Roman one and a kingdom over Rome. You can imagine and empathize that very quickly you would lose friends, lose access to social groups or social standing, be labeled as an outsider, be marked as someone—a traitor, maybe—who is hindering the prosperity and welfare of Rome, and face ridicule and hostility:

It’s understandable to imagine that many of these people may have felt a temptation to forsake Jesus altogether and return to their old lifestyle to avoid this type of suffering. This very issue is partly why Peter wrote this book—to remind them of their identity as God’s chosen people and encourage them to stay strong in their faith, no matter how hard it gets.

Though we’re now 2,000 years removed from this text, still today holding tightly to a Christian moral ethic and structuring your life as best you can around the teachings of Jesus can unfortunately create tension between you and those around you—your neighbors, old friends, family members, or coworkers. I thought about some cultural spheres around us that may become spaces where Christians feel alienated because of their moral convictions:

1. Substance use and abuse, such as excessive drinking, recreational drugs, and the party culture they often accompany. Christians traditionally take a stance of moderation or sobriety when it comes to substances, so environments that promote these things can become tense. I’ve had several moments over the past couple years with people at social gatherings who don’t understand why I control my alcohol intake strictly, resulting in being thought of as a buzzkill and even not being invited to gatherings as often.

2. Consumerism and materialism. Our culture doesn’t promote wealth as much as it promotes debt that you incur as you accrue more stuff than you can practically afford, ultimately limiting your resources for generosity and creating a mindset of need, greed, and jealousy instead of contentment and humility.

3. Political Allegiances and Nationalism. Jesus taught us to love our enemies; to care for immigrants, refugees, and the poor; and that his kingdom is not part of this world. Christians following this ethic may be labeled as part of a certain political party and disregarded, or labeled unpatriotic and harshly criticized and slandered. For sharing resources with people who have nothing, especially outsiders, Christians could be labeled as an economic liability, a safety issue.

4. Sex and Relationships. Christians may be considered outdated, “old fashioned”, or puritanical for promoting monogamy and one sexual partner. This category is very relatable to me. Lauren and I were even talking this past week about friends that we both have who bought into our culture’s sexual ethic, which then became the tipping point that led to them walking away from church communities and eventually stopped following Jesus faithfully. We feel this deeply, remembering how much tension arose in our friendships as we confronted them on their compromise and urged them to return to Jesus. When I tell people that Lauren and I didn’t sleep or live together before we got married, they look at me as if I sprouted a horn out of my head and called myself a unicorn, often with much judgment in their eyes.

Misc: Maybe it’s not necessarily a cultural attitude but a singular event that you have had. Maybe in your workplace, you’ve refused to cut a corner or do something you think is unethical, even when other people would, and it’s changed your employer’s perspective about you. Maybe it’s family members or friends who pressure you to make certain decisions or live your life in a way that doesn’t honor God or other people. For me, things get weird when I tell people why I don’t watch certain shows or movies with a lot of explicit sexual content, because that is a sensitivity I have that I need to guard against indulging. But I can see the judgment in people’s eyes when I tell them I won’t watch Game of Thrones.

Expect opposition, prepare to engage it by knowing why you have the convictions you do. Always be prepared to give an answer. And stay committed.

3. To receive life promised through the Spirit.

Friends, this is a hard word. Jesus, in Matthew 13, tells a parable about a farmer sowing seed. Some seed falls on rocky ground, couldn’t take root, and was quickly scorched by the sun. He explains shortly after that these are people who fall away quickly when distress or suffering come into their life because of God’s word. Jesus knew this was a hard ask, that many would fall away quickly. And yet, friends, Peter ends by giving us hope.

1 Peter 4:1–6 CSB

6 For this reason the gospel was also preached to those who are now dead, so that, although they might be judged in the flesh according to human standards, they might live in the spirit according to God’s standards.

Similarly to the verses at the end of chapter 3 that Sheridan preached on last week, this verse too can be difficult to interpret. On first reading, it sounds as if Jesus goes to preach the gospel to dead people so that they would hear the gospel, believe in Jesus, and live in the spirit with Jesus. And there are some people who interpret the passage this way. However, we hold to a traditional Christian view of salvation which states that we receive this lifetime alone to choose to follow Jesus and do not receive a second chance after we physically die. Therefore, a better interpretation of this verse is that Peter reassures us that those who follow Jesus are vindicated from their suffering and receive new life after death. Think about how this book was originally written to the first generation of Christians, possibly only twenty to thirty years after Jesus ascended. Jesus promised when he went back into heaven that he would one day return to renew the world and save his people. Christians were now facing persecution for their faith and dying. People began asking, “Hey, Peter. My wife, my husband, my son was just killed for his faith. My parents are no longer here. Will they miss out on Jesus’ return?” Peter’s responded with reassurance that there is hope. Though condemned in the flesh (killed), those who stayed resolute in their faithfulness no matter the cost will come alive again in Christ. This life is not the end.

As I was finishing this sermon up yesterday, this truth hit me in a really new and profound way. We have a general idea of what happens after death—we are reunited with Jesus—but there is still a lot of mystery shrouding that whole process. Because it’s largely unknown, I don’t every really consider my life after death as part of my life. I live and think as if these 80, 90 years are all I have. I know something else will come, but I don’t fully understand what it is.

Visually imagine your life now, how long it feels yet how short it is in human history. But if you zoom out, you begin to see a never-ending line going to the right. You begin to realize that this life is not all you have, that Jesus promises your life will continue in the future.

But new life isn’t just for the future. New life is available today.

1 Peter 3:22 CSB

22 [Jesus] has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.

In his death and resurrection, Jesus conquered all evil authorities and powers and handed over that victory to us, his people. Evil still has power—just walk outside your front door and look—but, like The Upside Down from Stranger Things, only when the door is opened—sometimes we open that door and sometimes others open it— is evil allow to enter into the world.

Conclusion

And here’s the reality. Unless this is your very, very first time you’re ever hearing the gospel preached, I don’t think the concept of “New Life in Christ” is new. I heard new life preached about, discussed, studied, and explained endlessly since childhood, to the point that the phrase washes over and off of me like water on a duck’s back. I realized as I was processing this all with Lauren, that I can tell you about new life in Christ and the victory we have in Christ available to you today until I run out of breath and collapse. You could robotically recite all the sermons and the truth frontwards and backwards in your sleep. But the reality of new life will never be experienced in your life until you die to yourself, as Jesus commands us to. There’s an intentional choice we have to make, either gradually over time or in a moment, where we commit to praying:

“Jesus, this is so hard to resist this sin in this moment because it feels so unnatural and goes against what I want for myself in this moment. But help me trust and believe what you say about this. Satisfy me with you so that I don’t even feel this desire to run to anything else.”

“Jesus, I am so scared of what people will say to me or do to me because of what I believe about you, and it feels easier and safer to go along with everyone else and live like they are, believe what they do. It feels that if I stay faithful to you in this moment, to do or say the right thing, it might cost me my job, my relationship, my family, or even my safety. Give me the strength I need to trust your protection of me and care for me so that I can honor you by bringing the beauty of the gospel into this moment.”

That’s why we are going to head into communion. [Jesus not only preached this he leaved it.]

As we reflect on the call to live like Christ and adopt His mindset in our own lives, we are reminded that Jesus didn’t just teach us how to endure suffering; He showed us through His own sacrifice. In Luke 22, as Jesus prepared to face the ultimate cost for our salvation, He took bread, broke it, and said, “This is My body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.” Likewise, He took the cup, saying, “This cup, which is poured out for you, is the new covenant in My blood.”

As we partake in communion today, we remember that Christ’s suffering brought us life—life that is promised through the Spirit, life that is made available to us through His death and resurrection. Let us take this bread and cup, not only as a symbol of what He has done, but as a reminder to arm ourselves with His mindset. In this moment, we are united with Christ, looking forward to the life He has promised us. Let’s pray, and then we’ll share in this meal together, remembering His sacrifice and living in the hope of His return.