Constantly Prepared for Gospel Witness

Constantly Prepared for Gospel Witness - 1 Peter 3:13-17

1 Peter 3:13–17 ESV

Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.

PRAY

Context: Suffering That God Blesses

Suffering for Christ becomes the dominant theme in this next section of 1 Peter. (through to the end of ch. 4) - The emphasis for Peter is... what is our response to suffering?

Christians can avoid some antagonism with zeal for doing good.

(vv. 13 & 17)

Harm you: 1. Because of God’s common grace to all men, good is normally praised and evil punished - 1 Peter 2:14

2. And how can they harm you, ultimately harm you? - Reminds us of the words of Paul:

Romans 8:31 ESV

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

And v. 35 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?...” And 39 finishes with, “[nothing] will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Now the condition is that we be zealots for doing good - passionate, even obsessed and militant adherent

v. 17, Peter comes back around to where he started. - People do suffer sometimes for their own wrongdoing, but let that not be the case among you…

Christians can’t avoid all suffering. Some might even come because of righteous behavior.

(v. 14a)

- Suffering is to experience harm and emotional pain. Have you noticed that normal suffering that is common to all mankind (which we would understand as due to a fallen world) is no respecter of persons? Even God does not go, “Oh, those are my people… no earthquakes for them. No diseases for them. No car accidents or tragedies for them.” In most ways, we suffer alike. - But even that suffering is different for us than for those who do not share our deepest, our ultimate, hope. We are convinced that this is not the end of the story. We know that we are being sustained and strengthened, being molded and matured by the God who has made us his own and promises to complete his work in us. - If we all in some ways suffer alike, then what sets Christ’s people apart is their response to suffering… that’s what makes us different.

- But what Peter is addressing here is not this general suffering, but rather mistreatment for our faith. Now I know that we often think of our brothers and sisters throughout history and even now in other lands who suffer much more than we do… risking imprisonment, torture, and death for their faith. In that sense, their suffering is much greater than what we face. - But let’s not pretend that there isn’t real antagonism in modern western cultures to Christianity. - The strongest, most vocal group in society is liberal intellectualism. And that voice is regularly shouting that Christians are anti-intellectual bigots. (Mind you, such is simply not the case for many if not most of us. There probably are some idiots making Christ’s true church look bad, but that really isn’t even the norm. But there is in fact strong antagonism against Christianity. Such has been and continues to be the trend even in the adjustment of laws of Europe and now America. Anti-religion in general is more pointedly anti-Christian.) - And let’s not forget that some of us truly face being misunderstood and maligned by our own family for submitting fully to the authority of God’s word.

“Suffering for righteousness’ sake” - means suffering for doing what is right…

This kind of suffering is in fact a blessing.

- because it pleases God that we should suffer like Christ for His glory and for the good of others, it means that we are blessed… I told you last week that I understand the present blessing of our future inheritance as ‘a deep-seated knowledge of God’s presence and pleasure.’ - In what circumstance do you best experience the presence and pleasure of God, the heart and mission of Jesus? We would probably love it if it were the case that that happens best in the context of corporate worship (which by the way isn’t wrong). But that simply isn’t the case. We know God best and experience his greatest blessing in this life when we suffer for righteousness and obediently endure, while depending fully on him to sustain us and trusting him completely with the outcome, knowing that the next part of our story will make all suffering in this chapter worthwhile. The best is yet to come!

Always Ready with a Defense

Now, first of all we saw that we have to BE different. Part of what Peter is saying here is that the way we respond to suffering will make us noticeably different than those who are tied to this world.

We also need to be ready. (Be Different. Be Ready. - Suffer differently than everyone else because of hope [present faith with an emphasis on future expectation]. And be ready to explain what makes that hope special, in whom that hope is grounded. 1 Peter 1:21c “so that your faith and hope are in God”)

In order to be ready… (What does it take to always be ready?)

We cannot be controlled by earthly fear.

(v. 14b)

Instead [mention the next point…]

We need to admit this: It is fear that silences us. When we give in to fear of man, it is because we are giving more weight to what people think of us than what pleases God. We are fearing man rather than God.

But it happens to us, and some of us need to admit that it’s not just an occasional occurence but a pattern. - Peter himself understood this all too well, embarrassingly well. Recall Peter’s own infamous experience:

Matthew 26:69–75 ESV

Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came up to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” But he denied it before them all, saying, “I do not know what you mean.” And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, “This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.” And again he denied it with an oath: “I do not know the man.” After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, “Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you.” Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.

John Lennox (well-known Irish apologist), in a presentation to pastors, arguing from these verses that all believers are apologists, defenders:

What do we fear? Intimidation and Inadequacy

Why do we fear? Inconsistency - The knowledge we have in our head we are not exercising.

Peter assumes that as God’s people we are already about the business of gospel witness. - Have we buried the good news under all our religiosity… or even under all our efforts to be the mature church, mature believer that God desires for us to be?

image: large empty tree

Why did Jesus come? … To reveal God and to save sinners. To save just you, or others as well? And the way the NT describes your calling of faith in this life, are you really called only out of the world to sit around and celebrate having been rescued? Or have you also been called to be an ambassador to the world for the cause of Christ? Let me ask us something else: Who is the missionary to my family? To your neighborhood? To your colleagues at work, to your classmates? Who has Christ set in their midst to BE different and to persuasively DEFEND the gospel?

Search your heart. Because you will say, “But I’m not persuasive.” To that I ask, “But are you not persuaded?” Set apart Christ as Lord!

We must be motivated and sustained by worship of our heavenly Master.

(v. 15a)

In my opinion the best translation here is “But set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts” or “but in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord” (if that order rings better in English)

Being constantly prepared begins from within; it is a matter of the heart.

Always being ready is a matter of the heart.

The New American Commentary: 1, 2 Peter, Jude (1) The Blessing of Suffering for Christ (3:13–17)

The heart is the origin of human behavior (cf. 1:22; 3:4), and from it flows everything people do. Hence, setting apart Christ as Lord in the heart is not merely a private reality but will be evident to all when believers suffer for their faith. The inner and outer life are inseparable, for what happens within will inevitably be displayed to all, especially when one suffers.

Love birds - two young people who are interested in marriage

But it is still the case that this is also…

It is a matter of obedience.

My lack of evangelism largely comes down to a focus on self rather than on God. Can I be better equipped? Probably. But is that really the main thing stopping me? Or is it fear and lack of obedience?

Who or what has mastery over you?

“There is no limit to what God can do in a with a man who trusts Him and is consciously reliant on His Spirit.” - John Lennox

It means being alert, sensitive.

1 Peter 1:13 - preparing your minds for action!

Colossians 4:5 ESV

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.

We must be praying toward this end, for opportunity, and to be bold and clear in our communication of the gospel:

Ephesians 6:18–19 ESV

praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel,

Colossians 4:3–4 ESV

At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

This is a defense not of ourselves but of the gospel.

(v. 15b)

Defense - apologia - not limited to a legal environment, but all the time…

The gospel is right relationship to God through faith in Jesus. - Therefore our hope is in God rather than our earthly circumstances.

The occasion and the ground of our defense is a life of noticeable distinction.

We see this in v. 15 with “anyone who asks you” and in v. 16 where “your good behavior” speaks for itself and silences slander. (Slander lacks teeth when… *)

aiteo - To ask question that demands an answer.

SOMETIMES WE HAVE TO INITIATE AND ANSWER THE QUESTION THEY SHOULD BE ASKING!!! - You could even ask them, “What is your hope in?”

Having a clear conscience means… Being people of integrity when no one is looking, knowing your motivation is right.

This defense involves careful study and willing dialogue.

Title [above] + (That Logically Explains the Hope That Makes Us Different)

Reason - logos, a prepared statement of response, an account of narrative description of past events (especially for accountability...) - also the root from where we get our English word logical… Christian faith is far from blind, irrational. To contrary, the Christian faith is evidence-based. The Gospels, even the whole New Testament, and the careful preservation of it, is precisely for the purpose of the preponderance of evidence demonstrating that Jesus is the God-Man who died for the forgiveness of sins and rose again to prove his power as Lord and God. - “these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (Jn 20:31)

For our part then, this requires careful study. Paul told his apprentice, Timothy:

2 Timothy 2:15 ESV

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

We have and do and will invest countless hours of time and money in study for other fields. Why should we be so lazy in this discipline?

Further, we readily admit that we can be woefully inadequate in our ability. John Lennox admitted that he is scared all the time about the questions that will arise, and so forth. But he is prepared, and he trusts in God. - “We use persuasion, but we trust in God.” We study and we aim to be persuasive, but our trust in not in our persuasiveness but in the God who changes hearts.

Dialogue - You can see that there is interaction here between the one who asks and the one who presents a defense for his hope.

In Athens, Paul “reasoned” with them in the synagogue. (discoursed, dialogued)

Acts 17:16–17 ESV

Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.

(“waiting for them” - Waiting for Silas and Timothy after some antagonists from Thessalonica followed Paul to Berea and incited trouble there, so the Christian brothers moved him to Athens.)

Some philosophers began to debate with him (to converse in the sense of having a discussion), and he did not shun it but welcomed it because it provided him with opportunity. They brought him to the Areopagus, and he used an altar that was “to an unknown God” to proclaim to them the one true God who made everything and by whom all things continue to have their existence. Then he described to them the God-Man who has been appointed as judge of all things and will judge all men according to whether or not they repent and turn to Him. And the proof of his worth as Lord is his resurrection from the dead. - Some mocked him for this, but others wanted to hear more.

Our approach requires gentleness and reverence.

The New American Commentary: 1, 2 Peter, Jude (1) The Blessing of Suffering for Christ (3:13–17)

When believers encounter a hostile world and are challenged concerning their faith, the temptation to respond harshly increases. Defending a position could easily be transmuted into attacking one’s opponents. Hence, Peter added that the defense must be made “with gentleness and reverence”

Gentleness = mildness, tactfulness (indicates humility) - So while on the one hand we do not want to be paralyzed by fear and to do nothing/say nothing about the single most important thing in our lives (and in their lives! even if they don’t know it!), we must make every effort in the way we present the gospel, in the way we represent Christ, to give them every opportunity in our demeanor to respond appropriately. How much do you want to listen to someone who is rude and caustic, condescending and self-righteous?

The word fear here might be used to mean reverence, respect toward another person… or perhaps reverence before God. - So either we treat them a certain way out of reverence for God (even when they haven’t “earned respect”), or we are called to treat all authority and all men with “respect.” 1 Peter 2:17

[Conclusion:] OK, what shall we end with today?

First of all, let me say that I do not expect you to put this down and forget about it now. You must meditate on this truth of God’s word and due the work, soaked in prayer, of thinking and planning how to apply it.

Secondly, and finally, rather than focusing on your failures in this regard, remember that Peter is not asking you to do something that Christ himself didn’t comprehend fully from experience. And it is he who promises to be with you and be in you. Jesus explains in John 15 that he is the vine and we are the branches.

image: bearing fruit

Pray and prepare… and most of all, abide in the one who is your confidence and conviction.