1 Peter 3:8-12

1Peter 3:8-12 good morning, my brothers and sisters. It always seems like it's been forever since I've been up here even though it's only been a month and a half, it really does feel like years. Well, as always. Before we read the word of god, I would like you all to bow your head in prayer with me. Enter Prayer. Now with that, would you all stand with me for the reading of the word of god. 1Peter 3:8-12 Peter says "" Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9 Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. 10 For “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.”"" the word of the lord you may be seated. So throughout first, peter peter has told us that we are separated from the world. We are chosen by god to follow The chosen one Jesus. And as followers of Christ, he has laid out for us how we are, to act in trials. What were to bring to remembrance when we deal with the ways of the world? How we're to be separate and holy.How we're to conduct ourselves and our relationships at home And in the world. Now, he's going on to explain to us how we're to act as one body, how we are to behave. And how we are to appear to the rest of the world. But also how we are to bless the world and inso doing be blessed ourselves. In short, how were your chosen to bless and be blessed. and if we get this right,the blessing the world and inso being blessed. then the people we bless they'll long to be one of the chosen as well. This is why this next part of peter's letter is so important. Just as every part of this letter is important. But we should really take emphasis on what he says here. So let's look at the first verse. 1Peter 3:8. ""Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind."" I love how this starts out. He gives the hardest part first. Have unity of mind. Let me ask you something when you look out at the world. Does the world have unity of mind right now? I mean, right now we live in a country where every other headline is civil war. I know it's scary but we are not to act like the world. We are to have unity of mind. And you might ask, well, what are we supposed to agree upon? Well, Christ first and foremost, but he goes on to list a whole bunch of things that we are all to agree upon. He begins with sympathy. You know, sometimes I feel like I fail at this when it comes to being in unity of mind on sympathy. I have no problem being sympathetic to my own fallenness. And my own sinfulness, but far too many times when I see somebody else's sin. Even in the body of Christ, I'll make a snap judgment in my mind. Now luckily, god usually stops me from going out And rebuking a person outright, but far too often, I'll find myself being of a judgmental mind, rather than realizing that they're struggling with that sin, the same way that I struggle with the sins that I battle in my own life. When thinking about it, when I fail to be sympathetic towards my brother or sister in Christ. I'm failing at the other three aspects that peter mentions here as well Brotherly love/ a Tender hear/ and a humble mind. And the reason I'm using sin is because if we can get this right with sin, then we can absolutely get it right when it comes to our other issues as well. When you look out at the world, the type of sympathy, the world has is not the type of sympathy we're called to have. we are called to love one another. And be sympathetic towards each other's failings. And each other's pain. But We are not to just blanket accept the sin in each other's lives like the world does. The way the world shows sympathy gives the appearance of sympathy and love. But in all actuality, what they practice is appeasement and indifference. Now Paul writes in Galatians 6:1-2. Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. What Paul wrote here exemplifies all of these sympathy, brotherly love a tender heart and a humble mind. Guys, that's what he's talking about later on when he says that we are to bless the world. He means through using us. Cuz, I want you to think about it. What's god's favorite way to act in this world? It's through people through me. You and all of the other chosen brothers and sisters in Christ, he uses us to bless one another. And to bring his blessings to the rest of the world. Now, believe it or not. This first verse was the easy part, and the next verse comes. The harder part. 1Peter 3:9. ""Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing."" OH boy now Peter went and did it. Everything that he said in this entire letter, up to this point while incredibly hard. Still sounded doable, but coming across this verse, when you actually think about what it's telling you to do, it seems impossible. It seems like something only god himself can do. And if we think about it, there's actually some truth to that. I want to remind you that all these things were being asked to do. We're not asked to do them in and of ourselves. God gave us the law before and we couldn't follow it. We had no chance because we were trying to follow it without him. But now, as god's chosen people, he dwells within us. He actually lives inside of us. Do you know what that means? That means the things that were impossible for us to do before have now become possible. remember in Matthew 19:26 where it says ""Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” "" I'm not saying that we're going to magically become perfect. Like Jesus, that's not what I'm trying to say here. And even when we do succeed through the power of Christ within us, we're not going to do it perfectly. And we are going to fail at times that is very apparent. Trust me, my Wife can attest to that. Rather what once was impossible for us is now within our grasp because of god living inside of us. Dwelling within us. If that isn't hopeful, I don't know what is. But even with all that hope this still seems downright impossible, doesn't it. I mean, I have problems repaying good for good, never mind repaying good for evil. But, you know, I've seen examples in the world of where this is totally possible. I remember I was watching something on you tube, and I came across a video of a young black man whose brother I think it was was killed by an older probably, in his forties or fifties man who is standing before him in the courtroom. Just before his sentencing. And I was literally brought to tears when this young man expressed the hurt He had experienced due to the mans actions but told him that he didn't want him to be punished. But he truly from his heart

Was moved to forgive him. And he boldly said, it was because of Jesus, that he did this. And up to that point, the murderer hadn't shown any emotion during the entire trial. But in that moment when faced with that type of radical forgiveness, that type of repaying good for evil, he burst out into tears And so did I. Now too many times as well I've seen the opposite. I've seen people read their victim statements, and it's nothing but hurt that is expressed in anger and reviling and telling people how they wish they would rot in prison, And worse. So you have to ask yourself, where does this come from? And every time you do see it expressed, it's because the person is a follower of Christ. As we know as followers of Christ, that's exactly what he did for us. Now let take a look at Romans 5:6-10 where it says ""For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life"" so you see, Paul says it right there. While we were doing evil to Christ, he repaid us with the greatest good that we could ever. Imagine he died for us. Despite the fact that we were truly enemies of his. And peter himself heard the direct witness of this spirit within Jesus. in Matthew 5:44 “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” and then heard of it from Jesus mouth himself in. Luke 23:34 “And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.” .” probably one of the top five most famous quotes from the gospels. You know, I grew up hearing this quoted again and again, and because of that, in isolation, it kind of lost its meaning. But a few years back when I read the gospels with fresh eyes and just being able to picture in my mind. The anger and the hate of the people beating him, And cursing him and gnashing their teeth at him and just breaking him, and the words that leave his mouth are father, forgive them they don't know what they're doing. Next time somebody is being mean to us or hurting us or rude to us, or no matter what it is, that's the picture we need to have in our minds. The picture of one of us being the ones hurting Jesus, because that's what we do when we sin, we're putting nails in that cross, we need to picture ourselves as one of those people gnashing their teeth and cursing him, And him saying to his father in heaven, forgive him, he doesn't know what he's doing, or she. I think that perspective would change the way that we behave. Now, notice in the second part of that verse, he connects this directly to us obtaining a blessing. Well, what does he mean by that, because If we're the ones getting the evil from the people, how are we obtaining a blessing. Is peter just talking nonsense. Not at all. When I first came to Christ, this took me a while to unravel. But peter's going to use the next three verses to help us understand this a little bit better. So let's look at the next three verses "" 1 Peter 3:10-12 For Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it. 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.”"" now, this might not surprise many of you, because we've already seen peter do this once before In this letter, but he's quoting a psalm here. Psalm 34:12-16 to be exact. This is the song that David wrote about when he acted crazy, and drooled all over himself in front of Abimelech, so that Abimelech drove him out, and David ran off. I always thought that was a funny part of the story, you know, big, tough king David sitting there drooling, like a crazy person just so he could get away. But at any rate, David was under extreme persecution, running from Saul, and this is actually after he had been in the land of the philistines for a while. So this kind of correlates with what peter's saying here to the readers of the letter who have been under persecution in the land that they live in as foreigners because of being in Christ. So let's take a look at the rest of this psalm so we can get a better understanding of what David and Peter was trying to say this is Psalm 34 “Of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out, and he went away. I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together! I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Come, O children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. What man is there who desires life and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken. Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.”

So we see the context of this psalm is David exemplifying the fact that he's acting in the fear of the lord. And how god is going to deliver him ultimately And pay back those who have wronged him in the end. And as we've talked about before, the fear of the lord isn't, I'm afraid that he's going to hurt me, or I'm afraid that I will make him mad But rather, the reverence awe and respect that we have for god and his holiness. Essentially, the same fear and reverence we have for the lord when we're interacting with each other is the same fear and reverence we are to have when we go out to the rest of the world. And when peter mentions these verses from this psalm, the people reading this know the entire psalm and they know the story of David. I want you to think back to when David had two opportunities to end Saul's life. Now remember, Saul had been persecuting David chasing him everywhere. Trying to kill him and David had two different chances to kill him. But what did David say in those moments? I will not place my hand on the lord's Anointed, why do you think that is. I mean, David had every right in the world's eyes to end the suffering that he was going through by taking Saul's life. But see David knew something.

That we all too often forget. He knew that the lord would deliver the justice that Saul deserved. he knew the lord would take care of Saul in his own time, in his own way, and for David to take action would not be trusting that god would deliver him. He even had one of his mighty men say to him. The lord today has delivered Saul into your hands. And David said, no I will not take matters into my own hands. Now, this is one of those things that sounds really easy. When you say it out loud, but how many times when we get hurt do we actually think? OH, the lord will take care of this in the end. I know far too often in my walk. I haven't done this. Far too often I will give back to people evil. Because I think it's what they deserve. But what does the lord say. In Deuteronomy 32:35 Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly.’ and there's many other places in the bible where the lord promises that he will repay every man for his deeds. This makes it a whole lot easier to turn the other cheek when someone strikes you. But we’re to go a step further than that, we're also to pray for our enemies. The part you know about repaying evil with good. We all too often want God to strike people down for the evil they do right where they stand but the truth is, if we ask god to erase the evil in the world. Chances are he'd start with us. You know, if people weren't praying for me back when I was still dead in my sin. Then, God would repay me for my evil that I've done in this life. But thanks to the holy spirit, the lord Jesus and the father in heaven. I don't have to face that judgment and the prayers of the righteous people who were praying for me is part of what god used to facilitate that happening. I have no doubt of that in my mind. So when someone strikes us on the cheek or does evil to us, And we pray for them. We very well could be taking part in god's plan to withhold their judgment. And don't forget the other people around seeing you turn the other cheek. That affects them as well. How many testimonies have I heard where someone saw someone behaving more like Christ, and it led them to start questioning and leads them to the faith eventually. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven"" god's plan for this world is so big and so amazing in How he uses us to bring new brothers and sisters in to the family. When you think about it that way, when you actually think through to the possible conclusion.

And actually have the holy spirit help you bring this to remembrance in those moments. The impossible seems kind of possible. Doesn't it. And if it doesn't work out, if the person doesn't repent and come to the lord, then at the very least, god will still bring justice to the unrepentant sinner. So now to answer the question of when we bless the world what's the blessing that we get. Firstly, if the good conclusion is met and the person repents, then you've just gained another brother or sister in Christ. And even without that conclusion being met, you're starting to look more like Jesus, the more that you repay good for the evil that you get. Isn't that what the whole sanctification process is about? Is becoming more like the son. It says I Romans 8:29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. I've talked about suffering up here before and how god uses it in our sanctification, and to bring other good to the world. Peter is stating here that we are, to be of one mind. One mind that we are to bless one another through the way we act, and through proclaiming, god to all people, and so in that process, we are to become blessed Ourselves by conforming more to the image of Christ, and by sharing his gospel with the world. And that we can only do this by trusting god in the power of the spirit because If we try to do any of this on our own, it just won't work.