2020-07-08 1 Peter 3:16
Notes
Transcript
15 but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.
16 Yet do this with gentleness and reverence, keeping a clear conscience, so that when you are accused, those who disparage your good conduct in Christ will be put to shame.
I. The fruit of your life will either support or detract from the gospel of Christ.
I. The fruit of your life will either support or detract from the gospel of Christ.
16 Yet do this with gentleness and reverence, keeping a clear conscience, so that when you are accused, those who disparage your good conduct in Christ will be put to shame.
A. Is your life marked by a gentle spirit?
A. Is your life marked by a gentle spirit?
16 Yet do this with gentleness and reverence, keeping a clear conscience, so that when you are accused, those who disparage your good conduct in Christ will be put to shame.
Illus: Gentleness is truly a lost art in our day and time. Gentle people are rarely seen.
They are people who love greatly, but are recognized rarely.
This picture Peter gives his readers in his book is to walk softly in this world showing love and honor to people who do not treat you right.
It seems counter cultural in our day and time.
In our day and time, those who are most vocal about their offense get recognized.
In response we as christians have bought the lie that the only way to matter in this world is to join in the screaming of the world around us.
We have embraced the culture of victimhood. We want the world to know why they are wrong.
Yet the bible calls us to gentleness. and reverence.
In the middle of a pandemic of screaming, Scripture calls us to be people of gentle peace.
Yes, it won’t make headlines, nor will it become the next viral coment online, but it is the very fruit of God’s presence in you.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23 gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.
24 Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
B. Is your life marked by reverence and respect?
B. Is your life marked by reverence and respect?
16 Yet do this with gentleness and reverence, keeping a clear conscience, so that when you are accused, those who disparage your good conduct in Christ will be put to shame.
Illus: I know that the calls of revrence and respect don’t make much sense in todays world.
I’ve had people tell me that I’m misinterpreting the bible, or that the bible’s teachings on reverence and respect for leadership don’t apply anymore because of the government we are given.
Hear me friends, we have become convinced that self expression and liberty is the highest virtue, and anything that denies you that is not good.
YET, the bible speaks directly against this idea. It it calls us to self denial because we trust in God.
Because we trust in God, and believe he has all things under control we don’t feel we need to respond to everything we see as wrong or threating.
Because we trust in God we deny our individual rights out of love for our fellow man. That reverence right?
Let’s put some application to this. We are in an intense political season. Are we called to be gentle and reverent during this political season, and the answer is yes.
Your gentleness and reverence towards others, specifically those who believe and vote diametrically opposite of you, will speak volumes about your faith in God.
Let’t take this to a much more local level. We are living on the border of two cities who have taken very different approaches to wearing masks. If there is one topic we love to discuss it is how we believe every should act regarding this pandemic. Hear me please, we do not need any more onions or arguments about this virus.
Instead we are called to be gentle and reverent towards our fellow man, and towards the authority God has placed over us. Yes it applies even if we disagree with the orders.
In fact the call to self denial is central to who we are as believers.
In a few weeks, the plans for opening schools will be presented and the war will flare up again. Scriptures call to gentleness and reverence will still apply.
11 Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and exiles to abstain from sinful desires that wage war against the soul.
12 Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that when they slander you as evildoers, they will observe your good works and will glorify God on the day he visits.
13 Submit to every human authority because of the Lord, whether to the emperor as the supreme authority
14 or to governors as those sent out by him to punish those who do what is evil and to praise those who do what is good.
15 For it is God’s will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good.
16 Submit as free people, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but as God’s slaves.
17 Honor everyone. Love the brothers and sisters. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
II. The character of your life will either support or detract from the gospel of Christ.
II. The character of your life will either support or detract from the gospel of Christ.
16 Yet do this with gentleness and reverence, keeping a clear conscience, so that when you are accused, those who disparage your good conduct in Christ will be put to shame.
A. We need to deal with that plank in our own eye.
A. We need to deal with that plank in our own eye.
16 Yet do this with gentleness and reverence, keeping a clear conscience, so that when you are accused, those who disparage your good conduct in Christ will be put to shame.
Illus: Is anyone else an expert in other people’s sin?
That is the danger we face… looking at how others are wrong, because if we are constantly looking at the sins of others we don’t have to deal with our own.
The source of much conflict, whether it be personal conflict, marital conflict, or national conflict is that you become so consumed pointing out what others do that you fail to look at what you are doing.
The bible says, keeping a clear conscience. That means that you should look at your sins first.
Yes, they have their sins, and the Holy Spirit will work in their hearts. We have to trust that God is in control and that He will work.
More importantly though is that when we fail to deal with our own sin, we invalidate our witness.
Here is the theme… when we are not gentle, we invalidate our witness. when we are not reverent/respectful we invalidate our witness. We we do not keep a clear conscience we invalidate our witness.
Friends, our witness in Christ matters too much to miss this. We have got to get this right.
3 Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye?
4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a beam of wood in your own eye?
5 Hypocrite! First take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.
B. Hypocrisy at it’s core is saying one thing and living another.
B. Hypocrisy at it’s core is saying one thing and living another.
16 Yet do this with gentleness and reverence, keeping a clear conscience, so that when you are accused, those who disparage your good conduct in Christ will be put to shame.
Illus: When we say that we are christ followers, Christians, we are making a distinct claim.
We are claiming that we are the people of God.
We are saying that he have come to know the hope of the gospel.
We are saying that we have experienced the sacrificial love of God on the cross of Christ.
When the world sees us, they should come to know who God is by the way that we live.
But when we live contrary to the gospel, the sacrificial love of Christ, we hurt the name of God by our lives.
As I have watched our witness to a broken world over the last few years, we as Christians have not embodied the gentle and loving saviour.
We may hold to the right morals, but we push our morals at the world through anger completely abandoning the way of Christ.
As the world looks at us, they see our outrage and anger, and not the love of Christ which we say has transformed us.
20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
21 And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.
III. The world is looking for a reason to invalidate your message, don’t give them one.
III. The world is looking for a reason to invalidate your message, don’t give them one.
16 Yet do this with gentleness and reverence, keeping a clear conscience, so that when you are accused, those who disparage your good conduct in Christ will be put to shame.
A. If you claim the name of christian, your words, attitude, and life will either lead people to or away from Jesus.
A. If you claim the name of christian, your words, attitude, and life will either lead people to or away from Jesus.
Illus: I am going to challenge you to take an inventory of your life tonight.
Are you gentle? Reverent? Do you embody Jesus Christ?
As a world desperately in need of the love and grace of Jesus looks on you, on us, what do they see?
Does the gospel matter enough to you that you would be willing to stop anything that would keep people away from Jesus?
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 in heaven.