Sermon Tone Analysis

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

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:

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:

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 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