Living Hope

“in response to last week’s challenge to start one new habit to help discipline and train our children in the Lord.... Hand out a Bible Trivia game to young parents… “

Introduction: When you hear the word evangelism, how many of you think.. “I’m not really sure what that is?” Or perhaps you think you know what evangelism is, but not really sure what your responsibility is in that, or how to go about evangelizing? Hand out couple books.

How many of you, when you hear the word evangelism feel discouraged? Feel like, this is really hard or I cant seem to get motivated to actually evangelize? Hand out a couple books.

Today: We are going to be focusing on a passage of Scripture that helps us in our evangelism. That helps speak to those who are not yet Christians, about the gospel. Interestingly, it does not offer an extravagant evangelism plan, it doesn't give a formula for witnessing, it does lay out a step by step process for winning your family, friends, or neighbors to Christ. Rather, it describes the normal results of normal Christians who are living the normal Christian life.

Turn to 1 Peter 3 and in a moment we will be focusing on verse 13-17.

Transition: Explain the challenges of being in the world but not of the world. Of seeking to be a light in darkness. Of being a city on a hill that cannot be hidden. Of engaging those who are not believers in Christ.

Point: The hope that Jesus forms in His people is a powerful witness that gives us opportunities to share a verbal witness of the gospel. The key emphasis being, “Living Hope”.

Observations:

What is this hope? 1 Peter 1:1-2:10 answers this question: The hope of salvation. (just read this whole text)

1 Peter 1:3, 13

Transition: In chapter 2:9-10 he goes on to identify those with this hope as… (read)

2. How should those being built into a spiritual house and holy priesthood live? 1 Peter 2:11-4:11 What we discover in this section of the letter is that....This hope of salvation is living in that because it is revealed through the godliness of God’s chosen people. In other words, the good deeds of God’s people reveals our hope in Christ.

a. (Read) 1 Peter 2:11-12 Where do we see godliness and good deeds in God’s people?

In society as we submit to God’s appointed leaders and employers 1 Peter 2:13-25

In families as wives submit to husbands and husbands submit to Christ. 1 Peter 3:1-7

In the church as all Christians submit to one another. 1 Peter 3:8-12 (read)

b. Transition: Then, we come to a question that begins our focus passage this morning. He asks in 3:13… “Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? He answers the question in 1 Peter 3:14-17 … (read)

3. Point: Living with hope is a normal reality for a Christians. Living with hope positions Christians to proclaim the excellencies of Christ. In other words, suffering is a normal reality for Christians. Having hope in the midst of suffering is normal for Christians. Which inevitably will give opportunity to speak the gospel to those who are not yet Christians.

Why is this so significant for us in our current context? Before we give over to the notion that you have to be specially gifted in order to tell others about Jesus, or that you have to receive special training to evangelize, or that you have to have a ministry title or printed certificate that says you are able to speak about Jesus.... we need to hear loud and clear that the normal Christian life of living with hope in the midst of suffering will cause others to ask us to give an answer for that hope!!!

Transition:

What does living with Hope look like?

Do good.

Jesus sets the standard for good. You well know that we live in a culture where the definitions of good and bad have disappeared. Everyone does what is right in their own eyes. Morality in our culture has no authoritative standard. However, doing good for a Christians does have a standard. We do have definition of what is right and wrong. We do have the code of the kingdom as taught by the King of glory. The blessing for Christians is that we have God the Holy Spirit living in us to constantly direct us to the authority of the Scriptures as our clear guide for living righteously. So the question we ask is, “Am I actually doing good by Jesus’ standards?” If not, then be warned there will be no blessing for suffering for doing evil. If so, we can thank God for the privilege of suffering for righteousness sake.

Example of Peter in Acts 4…

Examples in the church. Ministry of prayer. Taking care of spouse aging parents or grandparents. Reading the scriptures at work or school. Being kind in the grocery store. Treating people with respect even when they don't deserve it. We don’t need a list for this. We have the hope of Christ and we simply need to walk through our days living with that hope.

Closing???

Honor Christ.

Do not fear those who will revile you, or those who do evil. Reality is, there are those who hate Christ. Who despise righteousness. Do not give them the benefit of troubling you.

In contrast to not fearing those who persecute, give honor and fear to the Lord. As Jesus said in Matthew 10:28

Matthew 10:28 ESV

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

2. Honoring Christ the Lord as holy in our hearts means that we fear Him and not our persecutors. How is this possible? We have heard stories or read biographies of those who have been martyred for Christ. How is it possible to face that kind of opposition without fear? Romans 5:1-5

Romans 5:1–5 ESV

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

You see church , when our hope is firmly fixed on Christ then we are filled with confidence that this is not the last day… whatever might happen to our temporary bodies we know that what God has prepared for those

3. Clear example: We will no doubt be tempted toward anxiety and fear. But this verse is very helpful to us because it directs us to the roots of those temptations. If we give over to the temptation of anxiety we are in effect worshiping and giving that person or circumstance undeserved honor. The diagnosis of the problem is not fear or anxiety. Rather, it is the idolatry in our hearts. When we yield to the temptation to fear something other than God we are guilty of giving praise to something unholy. Giving praise to what is unholy causes the symptoms of worrying and fearing situations or persons that were never ment to be worshiped. So.. when we are tempted to fear, the remedy, cure, or prescription is not a pill or psychotherapy. When we are tempted to fear the evil that seeks to harm us we must honor Christ the Lord as holy in our hearts. What does this look like??

4. Think about your conversations at work, school, or sporting event or societal function that you were a part of. Think about the talks that you've had with your family. Consider the interactions we have with one another as the body of Christ. When Christians are maligned for doing good, we will be tempted to give into the idolatry of fear. For example, when your at the football game and your friend is yelling an discussing and screaming at the refs, but your sitting there calmly rooting for the team and offering encouragement.. then that friend looks at you and says, “What’s the matter with you? Are you too good to put these terrible refs in their place?” The way of escape the the Lord is faithful to provide for us is to “in our hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy.”

Illustration: May God grant us the wisdom to know what that will look like practically, but what would happen if when you hear bad news at work you don’t freak out like everyone else but rest you hope in the Lord? What would happen if when your fellow employees are constantly talking about their wild parties at lunch break you are quietly reading the Scriptures? What would happen if when your talking with family about the crisis of our nation you don't whine and complain but recognize God’s sovereign care? What would happen if when we go through trials and tribulations as a church family we don’t ring our hands with worry but trust that Christ is sufficient to meet our every need? Here is what will happen… we will in turn be asked to give an answer for our hope!

Transition: We will in turn be presented with opportunities to Proclaim Christ.

Proclaim Christ.

What we say is important. We must speak the truth of the gospel. We must give credit to God for being Holy, recognizing we couldn’t make ourselves good, but Jesus did all the righteous deeds to pay for my sin by dying on the cross and rising again, and since he has given me new life and caused me to be born again I now have hope that I'm gong to spend eternity with Him. What we say is important, but just as important is how we say it.... Notice in the text Peter says do this with gentleness and respect.

How do we do this? With gentleness and respect. Humility toward those who are asking, and fear of the Lord. We proclaim Christ because He is our only Hope.

2. We live in a culture that is increasingly hostile against Jesus Christ. This isn’t a new problem for Christians. Since the birth of the Church, she has endured suffering for righteousness sake.

Closing: Living with hope does not mean we live without suffering. Quite the opposite, one of the major themes of 1 Peter is that suffering comes before glory. Pain comes before exultation. This is exactly the example of our Lord Jesus who suffered and died before He raised from that dead and ascended on high. This is exactly the good news of the gospel for those who will believe in Christ. Let us go from this place and walk in the extravagant grace of God in such a way that those without hope will threaten us with the task of giving an answer.