Sermon Tone Analysis

1 Peter 3:13-17

11.

The Answer of our Hope

Peter has been exhorting us to follow Jesus as His rescued, redeem, and restored people to live for Him before a hostile world.

Perhaps the greatest hindrance to be able to endure righteous suffering is fear: fear of losing your family, your spouse, your children, a boyfriend or girlfriend, friends, your job or career, your status, your home and even your life.

And everyone of those things in the providence of God could and may occur.

But in the midst of this, we have a real basis for hope as Christians.

We saw Peter lay the groundwork for this hope in verses 9-12 last week.

Now he prepares us as “elect exiles” as we are called in the very first verse of this letter (1 Peter 1:1) to face suffering, if and when it should come, by telling us that we are assured of the blessing of our future inheritance — and inheritance as we remember 1 Peter 1:4-5

Because of this, nothing and no one can ultimately, eternally, in the final analysis, harm us.

So we have nothing to genuinely fear.

We can and must entrust ourselves to the Lord in and through it all.

As we look at today’s passage, I want to see two main things: if you are in Christ today,

We are called to fearless humility

We have reason to hope

Humility

Hope

I.We Are Called to Fearless Humility

A. The “What If” Question

Peter affirms the general expectation that no harm comes to those who do good.

That is generally the case.

But the very reason Peter writes is that some of his readers have in fact been the targets of accusations (1 Pet.

2:12), ignorant talk (2:15), evil and insult (3:9; 4:14), threats (3:14), and malicious talk (3:16).

Christians commonly, even if sporadically, experienced such expressions of social marginalization and alienation everywhere from the death of Jesus onward, as the book of Acts documents.

In 3:14a Peter concedes that suffering is possible even when doing what is right.

We know that Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3:12

Having the possible threat of persecution for being a Christian and living your life by God’s standards and not the world’s can make one anxious, even fearful.

B. The Counsel We Need to Hear

A number of years ago I was at a convention where a number of ministries had booths and representatives from them to chat with the convention goers and interest them in their work.

I chatted with one worker who represented her church’s outreach ministry to immigrants in Brooklyn, New York City.

I knew her pastor and we struck up a conversation.

When she found out I was pastoring in Oklahoma, deep in Tornado Alley, she said, “John, how can you live there?

I’d be frightened all the time of the storms that I keep hearing about!”

I told her you learn what to look out for, where to go and not to go, and keep your eyes open.

The storms are not everywhere all the time.

You prepare, but don’t give in to fear.

I said to her, “Annie, how can you live in Brooklyn?! I’d be afraid of the crime and everything I hear about the place.”

She smiled and said, “you learn what to look out for, where to go and not to go, and keep your eyes open.

Crime everywhere all the time.

You prepare, but don’t give in to fear.”

The point is that you know the threat, know what to do, and do it when and if the threat materializes.

In short, it is the old Boy Scout Mott: Be Prepared.

Peter’s counsel: Have no fear of them, nor be troubled

Why?

You will be blessed if you suffer for righteousness’ sake.

Peter is saying, “look, if your good works our of an eager zeal and love for God give evidence that you belong to Jesus, remember that God rewards those who belong to Him with the inheritance His Son has won for them.

“ Nothing and no one can take that away from you.

No real eternal harm can be done to us because we have a reward, and inheritance, that is eternal, kept and reserved for us by God.

In verse 12 we saw that God’s intense gaze, His careful overwatch of us is constant.

1 Peter 2:25 tells us that our Lord Jesus is

Since God is for us in Christ Jesus, and will bless us, there is no reason to fear man, nor be troubled by them, or by any difficult circumstance we may face in our life on this earth.

We should Be Prepared!

Know the threat, know what to do, and do it when and if the threat materializes.

This truth is something we need to cling to, to sing, to memorize, to meditate upon, to continually remind ourselves of it.

Who can really harm us if God will bless us?

Who?

What can they take away if God is determined to bless us?

Nothing!

We will likely suffer as Christians in this world, but in the scales of eternity they are “momentary and light.”

They are temporary, but that which is eternal is coming.

Jesus’ resurrection proves it, the Holy Spirit is given as a deposit to us backs it up, God’s Word confirms it.

We were reminded of all of these things and more when we observed the Lord’s Supper a few minutes ago.

So if we live, we are the Lord’s, if we die, we’re the Lord’s still.

We just collect on the inheritance that much sooner!

What would our church be like if we truly believed what Peter by the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit is saying?

What would your life be like?

How would your life be different?

Your attitudes, thoughts, words, actions — how would they be affected?

How would you look at the news, how would you deal with the matters that come up in your life?

If you really did not fear anything because you know that the worse they can happen cannot happen — that you cannot lose God’s love for you?

Believers through the ages have faced persecution and death with great hope and boldness.

They knew the truth!

They honored Christ in their hearts.

Hope in God and boldness towards men was the result.

We are no longer afraid to honor Christ as Lord if we have that same hope they did.

We want to cry out, Jesus is King!

He is my King, My Lord.

He alone is worthy and holy of my praise — and yours!

I fear Him only; therefore, I am not afraid of you.

As a recent disciple of Jesus says:

Follow Jesus, listen and obey

No more livin' for the culture, we nobody's slave

Stand up for my home

Even if I take this walk alone

I bow down to the King upon the throne

My life is His, I'm no longer my own

That is what it means to honor Christ the Lord as holy in your hearts.

Since our actions flow from what is in our hearts, the core of our being, we acknowledge His lordship and submit to Him so that our actions - our entire lives - are directed by what pleases Him.

C. The Testimony the World Needs to See and Hear

When we live for Christ this way, we won’t run away in fear from man, won’t withdraw from the culture, won’t shy away from showing forth Christ to the world.

We will be free

Peter is saying, look, there is the possibility of suffering because you are a Christian, our persecutors may ask us to give a reason for the hope we have — why is it that we believe what we believe.

But it isn’t just persecutors, but we must be prepared to give that answer to anyone who asks.

We must be prepared to give an answer.

We prepare by seeing Christ in His word, by seeing what hope we do have in Him.

Do you have that hope?

The hope we have in Christ frees us to be bold and courageous in the face of threats and persecution, even death.

Fear of man will keep us quiet; God’s love will fill our hearts and open our mouths.

Though we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us, that doesn’t give us permission to be crass or rude about it!

We are warned that we need to answer with “gentleness and respect.”

It is the same idea with the counsel Peter gave Christian wives dealing with unbelieving husbands — they were to live for Jesus before their husbands with a “quiet and gentle spirit.”