Ready to Respond

We are in our third message out of a quick series on 1 Peter, highlighting a few key passages from the book.

In our first message, we saw that God has caused us to be born into a new and living hope. This hope isn’t wishful thinking that things might get better in the future; it is the certain trust that God will keep his word.

We said our hope is based on Jesus’ resurrection, which points us back to the promises God has made, gives us the right perspective on our tough days now, and gives us the hope of a future inheritance that is better than we could imagine.

So, because of what Jesus has done, we have an incredible, unshakeable hope.

Not only that, because of who Jesus is and what he has done, we have an identity that is greater than any other group of people in history.

If you have surrendered to Christ as your Savior and Lord, you have been called to be a part of a special group of people, a chosen race that God has called to himself. You are now a part of a royal priesthood with direct access to God because of what Jesus has done for you.

You now have the privilege of declaring his praises, telling people how awesome he is, so they too can know the God who loves us like this.

I need to offer one quick statement to clarify something that I should have said last week.

As I talked about finding our identity in Christ, I should have mentioned one other truth: Every human life has dignity and worth. Whether or not a person is a Christian, every human being is created in God’s image and ultimately designed for God’s glory. This includes the unborn, the disabled, the elderly, and those who follow after false religions or live in blatant sin.

Every human life has intrinsic value and dignity and should be protected.

However, those who follow Christ are the only ones who have the relationship with God Peter describes and the identity of being a part of God’s chosen people, a royal priesthood, and a people for God’s own possession.

With that said, as those who follow Jesus, we have a unique identity and an incredible hope that others don’t share.

In fact, as we saw last week, there are some who are even hostile to the idea altogether. To some, Jesus is a crutch for weak-minded people or perhaps a fairy tale or fable. He may have had some good things to say, but in their minds, it isn’t worth building your whole life around him.

Others aren’t sure what to make of Jesus, so they look at your love for him and don’t understand why you would do what you do or act like that.

As the years go by, it seems like more and more people are choosing not to follow Jesus.

How, then, do we respond to their objections and their criticism?

Let’s turn to this morning to find out.

The Christians Peter was originally writing this letter to understood this well.

They were beginning to be persecuted and pushed to the outer edges of society because they believed in Jesus.

Having explained their hope and their identity, Peter then begins to teach them how to respond to those who don’t agree and may even be hostile to the message of the gospel.

We will see this morning that for you and I to honor God based off our hope and identity in Christ, we must be ready to respond.

If you and I are going to be ready to respond when we are asked about our hope, we must first...

1) Live rightly.

In the first two chapters of Peter’s letter, he lays out some theological truths that suffering believers need to know, like their hope and their identity.

In chapter three, however, he is switching to more direct instruction on how to live. If these things are true, then what is my day-to-day life supposed to look like?

The first section of chapter 3 gives us great instruction on how our homes should reflect Christ. We don’t have time to look at that today, so we are going to pick up in the more general instructions.

Look with me at verse 8-12.

In verse 8, Peter is specifically talking about the way we respond to other believers, and he calls us to be like-minded, or unified in our thinking.

Unity doesn’t mean uniformity. We will have differences of opinion, but we will have the same purpose because we are all trying to live lives that honor Christ.

We are to have sympathy; not the kind that says, “Bless your heart,” but the kind that genuinely cares for what is going on with your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Honestly, when was the last time you really hurt for another person at church? When was the last time you were genuinely excited because something good happened for a believer you know?

If you want a great passage to get a more complete picture of what this looks like, write down and John 13:1-11.

We are to be kindhearted, having compassion on each other.

That is further indicated in the term “brotherly”, which implies loving each other like you would a brother. It’s the idea that you can pick on your little brother, but nobody else can!

We are to be kindhearted, having compassion on each other.

Listen: this should be the most caring place on earth.

We say over and over that our goal is love, but I really wonder how much we mean it.

Having talked about relationships with other believers, Peter points us to those outside the church in verse 9.

He only gives us one command, but it is a doozy!

We are not only called to not be mean back to someone who hates us or reviles us; we are called to actually bless them!

Blessing in Scripture has the idea, as one dictionary talked about it, of filling someone with benefits.[1]

In this context, we are talking about actively doing nice things for someone who has insulted us; has even done evil against us.

God calls us to fill that person with benefits, to genuinely pray for and seek their good!

Remember, that’s exactly what Jesus did. Look back at .

Jesus did it and died to give you the strength to obey in that same way.

Look at verses 10-12…

And as we said at the beginning, that draws attention from God Himself.

Look at verses 10-12…

If we have the attitudes in verses 8-9, we will keep our mouths from speaking deceit. We will pursue peace.

Look at the promise of verse 12.

Remember; God knows everything and is everywhere. He is also spirit, so He doesn’t have physical body parts.

However, He is described here in a unique way to tell us about the incredible relationship God has with those who live according to His standards and nature.

The psalmist elsewhere fleshes this out:

Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, On those who hope for His lovingkindness, To deliver their soul from death And to keep them alive in famine. (, NASB95)

Hanani, a prophet in the Old Testament, said this about God’s eyes:

2 Chronicles 16:9 CSB

For the eyes of the Lord roam throughout the earth to show himself strong for those who are wholeheartedly devoted to him. You have been foolish in this matter. Therefore, you will have wars from now on.”

“For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His…” (, NASB95)

Here, Peter says that God’s eyes are toward the righteous. He sees, He knows, you have His attention as you live differently.

He is watching over you to strongly support you; to help you through any trial or struggle you face, especially when you face it because you have served Him in a world that doesn’t agree.

Not only that, but He is listening to you! His ears attend to your prayers.

Isaiah said,

Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short that it cannot save; nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. (, NASB95)

For those who are in Christ and strive to live righteously, God is attentively listening and responding to your prayer.

Do you feel as though God isn’t responding to your prayers?

Although there are seasons where He is quiet or He responds differently than we expect, you need to examine your heart and see if your life matches up with who God has called you to be in these verses.

Are you living differently, or have you bought into the rugged individualism that our society puts such a high value on.

God has designed you for community, and sin destroyed that.

Jesus died to reconcile us to God and to others, and that allows us to live in true community towards others.

His life flows through us, allowing us to actively seek the good of those who don’t love Jesus and even hate us for loving Him.

In turn, that lifestyle is pleasing and honoring to God, which results in His special care and concern for us.

Wow! What an incentive to live differently.

What does all this have to do with being ready to respond to people who may challenge what we believe?

We claim to have had life-altering, eternity-shaping encounters with the God who is himself the embodiment of love and grace and mercy.

If we are going to make that claim, then we had better back it up with the way we live!

You cannot expect to disregard what God says about how you should live and then expect to help others find a true relationship with Christ that you aren’t showing that you have.

However, when you do treat your brothers and sisters in Christ differently, and when you do react differently to those who hurt you, you establish a great foundation to talk about the hope you have.

As you live this way, there will be opportunities to talk to others about who Jesus is, what he has done, and what he can do for them. When that happens, you must...

[1] Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, “Blessing and Cursing”.

2) Respond appropriately.

When we live the way God calls and expects us to live, then other people are going to notice.

Some aren’t going to like it, and some are going to get angry.

Some people are going to have questions about why we believe what we believe.

How do we respond when that takes place?

A) Settle it in your heart.

You and I have to decide in our hearts, “Is Jesus worth it?”

Being a Christian isn’t always fun and it isn’t always comfortable.

Before the difficult days come, you need to answer in your heart whether or not you think it is worth doing what God asks you to do.

One of the great examples of this is the young man Daniel we find in the Old Testament.

Daniel was a young man who was carried off from Jerusalem to Babylon when the Babylonians attacked Jerusalem. He was sharp, so he was selected as one of the men who would be trained to serve in the king’s court in Babylon.

Part of that training involved the privilege of eating from the king’s table, which was some of the best food in the empire.

There was a problem with that food, though: it wouldn’t have been prepared according to the dietary laws that God had given the Jews, and it may also have been offered to the Babylonian idols before being served to the king.

So here is how Daniel handled it:

Daniel 1:8 CSB

Daniel determined that he would not defile himself with the king’s food or with the wine he drank. So he asked permission from the chief eunuch not to defile himself.

Daniel settled in his heart that he was going to honor God in spite of the pressure around him.

Have you settled that issue in your heart?

Life following Jesus is going to be uncomfortable at times, so you need to nail down now whether or not you believe Jesus is holy, if he is set apart, and if he is worth suffering for.

Given what we have already seen in 1 Peter, I think we should be able to answer with a resounding yes!

But you have to settle that in your own heart so you can be ready to respond.

That’s the second aspect we see of responding appropriately:

B) Get ready.

In verse 15, we see that we are commanded to be ready to give a defense of the hope you have in you.

When do you get ready to do something? When it happens or before it happens?

There is a saying that is attributed to Archilocus, an ancient Greek poet and possibly soldier:

“We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.” (Archilocus)

You may have heard this from a coach or from your commanding officer in boot camp, but the idea fits here as well.

We

In combat or in sports, the idea is that when things get hard, you aren’t going to do as well as you think you will. You will only do as well as you trained to do.

When the battle heats up or when the game gets intense, you are going to fall back on those drills you ran over and over and over and over.

Many of you have your brackets filled out for the tournament and have been glued to the TV this week. How many of the teams in the tournament do you think just thought they would figure it out when they got there?

That’s insane, right? They drilled and practiced and ran plays over and over again until they could do them in their sleep.

If we would train that way for a battle or to win a game or a title, then why won’t we train that way to be able to defend God’s honor or to help other people to know who he really is?

Guys, we need to be ready, so you need to be thinking through how to answer the questions that you have and that others will ask.

There are great resources out there for those who want to delve deeper into it, but the best way for you to know how to answer someone is to get super familiar with your Bible, and especially with the gospel.

There are dozens of different gospel presentations out there. Start by learning a simple one, and then as you can, add additional tools into your tool kit.

A great place to start is with the Life Conversation Guide App. It is the digital version of the booklets we hand out most frequently to people who visit our church and to others we want to know about Jesus.

Get familiar with the verses and the points so you are ready to give an account for the hope that is in you.

Okay, so you have been living right, and you have settled in your heart that Jesus is holy and worth it.

You know a little bit about the questions people ask about following Jesus, and the time finally comes where you find the opening in the conversation to give an account of the hope you have.

How do you respond in that moment?

C) Respond gently and respectfully.

Look back at verse 16.

Some folks are already going to have a difficult enough time with the message of the gospel that we don’t need to make it worse by being rude.

As we have already seen and said, the gospel is offensive, because I am telling you that you aren’t good enough to get to heaven.

If that is where people stumble, then that is betwen them and the Lord.

However, God forbid they stumble because we were jerks when we were telling them about Jesus.

Right now, our society feeds on tearing down others.

You’ve likely seen the click-bait titles of the videos as you scroll through Facebook or YouTube: “Watch this Christian professor DESTROY this atheist”.

Often, those titles really are overstated just to make a point, but some times, the video is filled with rude, dismissive, arrogant people who claim the name of Christ and yet respond to those who don’t know Christ with hateful and demeaning responses.

That isn’t what we are called to do. You are never called to flame that liberal on your Facebook wall. You aren’t called to be a troll and stir up trouble.

You are called to respond with gentleness and respect, recognizing that the person you are talking with is created by the God who loves them and is blinded by the one who rules this world.

Listen to how Paul says we are to respond when we are in conflict:

2 Timothy 2:24–26 CSB

The Lord’s servant must not quarrel, but must be gentle to everyone, able to teach, and patient, instructing his opponents with gentleness. Perhaps God will grant them repentance leading them to the knowledge of the truth. Then they may come to their senses and escape the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

If you walk away from a conversation with someone who doesn’t know Jesus, whether online or face-to-face, and you think, “Well I sure showed her,” then you missed the point.

We declare truth, and we declare it boldly, but we declare it gently, patiently, and respectfully.

We never demean

That’s really hard, isn’t it?

I mean, sometimes you get into a conversation with someone and they are belligerent, and they want a fight.

They may say things you really wish you could, but you can’t respond to them the way they are responding to you.

How in the world do you respond to someone like that? How can you keep your composure when something like that is taking place?

Because you serve someone who already did. Read verse 18 with me...

If ever there was a justified opportunity for someone to respond harshly, it would have been Jesus when he was arrested, beaten, ridiculed, and crucified.

Can you think back over those events? How people accused him of blasphemy, and he barely uttered a word?

Even when Jesus did respond, it was with grace and gentleness.

He had every right and ability to destroy not just their arguments but also literally to destroy his accusers!

Yet, he didn’t. He let those same accusers put him to death for their sins and ours.

That’s the One who gives us the hope, guys. If he can respond gently, then can’t we do the same?

So, are you ready to respond when someone asks you about your hope?

Starting in verse 19-20, we have one of the most challenging passages in the New Testament to decipher and interpret.

Let’s read it together, and then I will do my best to explain it.

Scholars are divided on what Peter is referring to here, but given the context, this is my best understanding of it:

Now is a great time to examine your heart and see if you are living rightly because in just a few moments, we will be taking the Lord’s Supper together.

God gave Noah 120 years heads up between when he told him to build the ark and when the rain started to fall.

During that time, Noah was one of the only men alive who actually honored God.

In , Peter refers to Noah as a “herald of righteousness”, which indicates that he told others about their need to repent and turn to God.

We are going to have a time of invitation, and during that time, I want to invite you to respond to what God is saying to your heart.

How did he have the strength to be one of the only men on earth who actually believed in and honored the One True God? Because, as Peter says in this passage, the Spirit of God was preaching through him. It wasn’t Noah doing it, it was Jesus, by means of the Holy Spirit, preaching through Noah to those people who were alive during his day and are now separated from God forever because they refused to listen.

Is there a sin you need to confess? Do you need to commit to learning more about sharing and defending your faith? Do you need to ask God to give you a gentle and respectful attitude when talking about and with others who don’t know Christ?

Paul said this about how we are to get ready to take Communion together:

1 Corinthians 11:27–29 CSB

So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself; in this way let him eat the bread and drink from the cup. For whoever eats and drinks without recognizing the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.

1 Cor 11:27029

Spend some time during this invitation preparing your heart to take the Lord’s Supper with us.

[1] Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, “Blessing and Cursing”.