A Reason For The Hope

Go and grab your Bibles. We're going to be in First Peter this morning. We're going to be looking at chapter 3:es 13 through 17. And I've titled this A Reason for the Hope. A reason for the hope. And what you'll see here, the big idea is that faithful endurance, faithful endurance creates evangelistic opportunity.

Faithful endurance creates evangelistic opportunity. And that's for everybody. That's for everybody. All right? And so it's not this is not one of those messages where it's like, "All right, this is for those who have the gift of evangelism. This is for those who are extroverted.

This is for those who just have a knack for like they never meet a stranger. And so anytime they meet someone, they're always sharing the gospel wherever they go. But this isn't just for those people because when we get to verse 15 and you see where it says, you know, always being prepared to give an answer for the reason for the hope that is within you. Um this isn't just one of those messages where it's like those are for the professional sharing of the gospel type people. And we're so thankful for those people. But this is for everybody.

This is for everybody in the room. And so as I read this passage for us this morning, I want you to see that it that it's actually deeper than just let me sharpen the tools of evangelism. It's actually deeper than that. Um and and and you're going to see it. It's going to be great. Verse 13, let's start reading there and then we'll dive into this.

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, than for doing evil. Father, I want to pray one more time for this word this morning. I know that there's absolutely nothing that I can do to convince people to believe the truth. But what I know I can do is proclaim the truth and trust that your spirit grants grace in this room for us to understand, for us to know you and to know your word and for it to transform our lives so that we don't fear the things of this world, but we fear you. and that we bend our knees to you, that we submit to you, that we surrender to you in all things, even if that means suffering for doing good, for proclaiming good news, for serving our neighbor. because we know that even if we experience suffering on this side of heaven, this side of glory, in the great scheme of things, it actually doesn't matter because we're blessed for eternity already.

And so, Father, help us with this good word this morning. Help us with this good news. May it transform our lives so that we rightly order our lives in a way that is serving the purposes of God and not serving ourselves. We love you, Lord. and we need your help. It's in your name we pray.

Amen. Amen. Peter's argument here in these in these few verses is is not again, as I mentioned, it's not merely apologetics. It's not merely just public witness. It's not even the persecution that you're going to see in this. It's about worship.

That's it. It's about worship. It's about making sure that your heart is inclined towards honoring Christ the Lord as holy. As we've talked about over the last few weeks, I've been contrasting the word and the world as sort of the two things that are forming you, that are shaping you. I mean, we believe something, we worship something, we honor something, we give of our time to something, we give of our talents to something, we give of our treasures to something, we steward our lives towards something. It's either the word of God or the world.

And when the world is our authority, it inclines our heart towards the worship of humans of self. And instead of peace, it ushers in fear. Fear. And what fear does is it disorders the soul and it ultimately disorders your life. That's what fear does. Everything feels like chaos.

which is what Satan ultimately wants. What he ultimately wants is chaos. But when the word is our authority, when the word is our authority, it inclines our hearts towards the worship of Christ, not humans, not self, not the world, towards Christ. And instead of fear, it ushers in peace. Peace. And peace orders the soul.

And it ultimately orders your life. That's what peace does. Everything then doesn't feel like chaos. It feels like logos. It feels ordered. It feels right.

It feels beautiful. It feels the way things are supposed to feel. I mean, that's why the world is groaning. That's why creation groans. That's why we're frustrated is because things are not as they are supposed to be. Theologians say, "What we're really trying to do in the world is we're trying to get back to Eden.

We're trying to get back to shalom because things are chaotic. Things aren't the way they're supposed to be. And the world is trying to figure it out, but all it can do is usher in more chaos." But the word of God, when we submit ourselves to the way of Christ, it ushers in the way logos, it ushers in the word of God and what God has ultimately designed for us to function, how we live. And so what Peter's doing is he's writing to Christians who are increasingly marginalized within a pagan society where everything around them is chaotic. And he's telling them as Christians again as you are living in this chaotic world, you are not to be chaotic.

You are to be ordered. You are to be submitting yourselves to Christ. You are to be following in his ways. So that when the chaos reads and studies the logos, your life, what you're proclaiming and what you're doing, they look at it and they see something different, something strange, something that the world is not actually bringing out. And so Peter is teaching them as you're in the world, as you're in the chaos, do not retreat from it. Do not panic.

Do not rage. Do not self-preserve. Instead, he's calling believers to have hopeful endurance that's rooted in a crucified and risen savior. So, you are to have hopeful endurance in the chaos because you're trusting in the logos. You're trusting in the word of God. You're trusting in Christ himself.

And so this passage, the way it sort of flows is that you you've got the the the introduction, the reality of hostility, you've got the temptation that we're going to experience to to to give ourselves over to fear in that chaos. But then you have the pull of God to say, "No, no, no. Sanctify yourselves in Christ. Anchor yourselves in Christ." And from there it produces public witness, moral integrity under accusation. And finally, it leads to a theology then for how we are to suffer for righteousness sake.

So that we're not surprised when suffering comes. We're not surprised when difficulties come. We're not surprised when trials come. But when they come, we actually get to say, "This is what we've been expecting. This is what we know is coming. And this is where we get to see the light of Christ shine in the darkness.

And it gives opportunity that when the world sees something different, something unique, something that the rest of the world is not producing and they start asking questions, why are you hopeful when things are falling apart? We get to respond with an answer. And when we respond with that answer, our greatest hope is that they come to see Jesus. They come to see Christ and they begin following him. This entire section prepares for Peter's ultimate example that we see in verse 18 that we'll talk about next week. But for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous.

Like the ultimate righteous one suffering once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous. So why would we expect anything different for ourselves? Why would we why would we expect a life of ease and comfort and pleasures forever more? So let's look at this. Let's unpack this a little bit and understand what what the word of God is teaching us this morning. Verse 13, he begins with this thing.

Who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? Now, it's going to build up a little bit towards the suffering component here, but he's kind of getting at a general statement. Generally speaking, visible goodness restrains hostility. Generally speaking, generally speaking, doing good does not provoke hostility. Like right now, if you were to just go pull a hundred people on the street and you were to say, "If someone were to do an act of kindness towards you, do you want to punch them in the face?" A hundred of them are probably going to say, "No."

That's great. We love acts of kindness. We love people who do good things. It's why Oprah Winfrey was so popular because she loved doing good things. So the idea of just general goodness actually does restrain to a certain degree hostility. And so he starts off by just saying who's there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good.

Now the language of being zealous suggests that it's this like energetic commitment. All right? Like you have a zeal for this. You have a zeal for doing good. Christianity what it should produce is Christians who champion more than anybody defining what is good, promoting what is good and performing what is good. Like when it comes to doing acts of kindness, when it comes to serving the world, when it comes to doing good things, Christians should be leading the charge on that.

And to be honest, they are. They are. When you look at nonprofits throughout the world, food p food pantries predominantly are run by churches more than anybody else. Those who give to charity are done by Christians more than anybody else. Those who adopt children are by Christians more than anybody else. Those who foster children are by Christians more than anybody else.

So we are I mean this is to fruition happening all throughout our world but that should not be a surprise to people and unfortunately today Christians doing good to the culture around us has somehow become a surprise because the way the culture reads Christians today is that all we do is jump on our channels and we just rebuke people. We just correct people. We do the verse 15 without the good deeds, without the good works, without investing in people's lives, without, as we looked at over the last five, six weeks, without submitting to human institutions. Instead, we almost seclude ourselves away and we just throw Bible verses at people. and then wonder why they think Christians aren't doing anything good. Now, some of that can also just be the fact that they don't see it or they're not willing to see the fact that Christians do good, that they are out actually outperforming every other institution that's in the world when it comes to this.

But the idea here is that we are as Christians to be zealous for good works. We're to be zealous. we are to have energy for this. And and I think to a degree we all I mean we don't use that term zealous as much anymore. We say what are you passionate about? What what excites you?

Like what gets you up in the morning? Like how do you you know what how do you spend the hours that you have you know um non busy or free time? I mean y'all are like I don't even know what free time is. When was the last time I had free time? But how do you spend your free time? Like here are putting my cards on the table.

Here are two things that I'm pretty zealous about. Pretty zealous about I'm zealous about the Cowboys winning a Super Bowl. Like I'm zealous about that. So I watch the games. I cheer on the team. I wear the jerseys, but I have no guarantee that I'll ever see the Cowboys win a Super Bowl again.

There's no guarantee there. And so if that's what I'm ultimately zealous about, Solomon would chime in and say, "Dude, that's meaningless. That's Thank you, Mike. That's meaningless." He would say, "You're chasing the wind. It's it's it's in vain."

Here's another one. I'm zealous about shooting par on a golf course. like I've broken 80 twice, but that took me 10 years to even get to that point and I haven't done it since. There's been one time, and when I say I'm for for those who don't follow golf, I don't even need to get into it. Shooting par is what you aim for. There's been one time where on a front nine, I shot even par.

And I was so excited and I said, "All right, I'm going to go ahead and play the back nine." And as I was playing the back nine, so I shot a 35 on the front, I needed to shoot a 36 on the back. And I was like, "All right, if I can just maintain what I just did and shoot a 36 on the back, I'll shoot par." And I've never done that before in my life. I shot a 52 on the back nine. I don't even know why I do this anymore.

I hate it. Solomon would look at that and say, "Maningless, man. Meaningless." So now instead of saying, "I play I just I spend four hours in nature just enjoying God's creation and I hit a ball in order to get there." But here's what Peter is zealous about. Making disciples.

Here's what Paul's zealous about. making disciples. I mean, Paul loves the term zealous. He loves it. Uses it to describe his own ambitious spirit. Listen to this.

In Galatians 1:14, he says, "I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people." I mean, Paul's not a man who lacks confidence. All right? He He would basically be like walking into this room and be like, "I'm better than all of y'all." Literally better than all. No one's studying more than me.

No one's outperforming me on anything. Like I'm the guy. And that's how he viewed himself in what he was brought up in in Judaism. So extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. That's he's just talking about his his the religion of Judaism. Verse 15, he says, "But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles."

So he changes his whole life and he changes his whole purpose. He says, "You are persecuting the church. Now you're going to be a preacher of the church." Like you are going to be proclaiming the word that you were trying to stop. He says, 'I did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and I returned again to Damascus. In verse 18, he says this, after 3 years, I went up to Jerusalem.

So again, this is a guy who didn't flame out. All right, three years later, still preaching and proclaiming Jesus. I visited with Ca Caifice and remained with him 15 days, but I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. and what I am writing to you before God. I do not lie. Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cissia and I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.

They only were hearing it said he who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy. So when we say like he was zealous about Judaism, I mean he was devoted to destroying anything that would essentially harm it. Anything that would pull people away from it and now it's saying that he is preaching. So the same energy that he had for that he now has for this. And they glorified God because of what Paul was doing. And then listen to what Galatians says here in 2:es 1 and two.

After 14 years, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas. So again, he's gone from Jesus changing him. Three years meeting with Peter and then now 14 years later. So he's staying at it. This is not a guy who flamed out, staying at it. Taking with him up to Jerusalem.

Barnabas taking Titus along with him. Verse two, I went up because of a revelation um set before them though privately before those who seemed influential. So he's meeting with the the he's meeting with the team that matters at this point. Like I need to meet with the ones in order to show them what I've been passionate about for the last 14 years. And this is what he says. Um I lost my place.

Thank you. There it is. That I proclaim among the Gentiles. So he lays the gospel before them. Basically saying, check my notes. Make sure that what I'm preaching is correct in order to make sure that I was not running or had not run in vain.

So he ties his zealousness, his zeal, he ties it to preaching the message and then wanting to make sure that what he's preaching is accurate and correct. So submitting it to the apostles, to the disciples, so that he's living his life not in vain. And he even says that I'm running. So Paul might be someone who's walking with Jesus, but he's not walking for Jesus. He's walking with Jesus in relationship, but he is running for Jesus as far as getting the gospel to anybody and everybody else. That's a zeal.

That's a zeal for proclaiming the word and performing good works to those around. If your life is inclined towards the things of this world, you're running in vain. You're running in vain. your your zeal is misdirected. It's misguided. It's not after what it should be after.

But if your life is inclined towards the things of Christ, then you're running with purpose. And one's going to feel like chaos and the other's going to feel like logos. One's going to feel like there's no peace and the other's going to feel like this is the best thing I could ever do in my life. I'm not wasting a day. I'm not wasting a moment. And what Peter is saying is that if you're zealous for the purposes of God, you have nothing and no one to fear.

You have nothing and no one to fear. Included in the purposes of God are being zealous for what is good. This parallels with what Jesus says in Matthew 5:16, that good works are a tool um are a tool for helping others follow Jesus. This is what he says. Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven. Who is in heaven.

And so we're we're we're honing in on this because so many people will look at verse 15 and just think as long as I get the message right, people will come to know Jesus. And this is saying it's not just that. That's the main thing. Like we got to make sure that because if you're only doing the good works then you're no different than Oprah Winfrey. But it's making sure that the message is backed up with the fruit. It's making sure that they're that they are one and the same as far as what we are proclaiming and what has been accomplished for us we are also doing for others as well.

Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and glorify your God the Father who is in heaven. Peter assumes that Christians will witness or that Christian witness will ultimately lead others to follow Christ. But Peter also knows something deeper about the human condition. Generally speaking, good works restrain hostility. Yes, that's true. But he also knows something a little bit deeper about the human condition.

That that's not always the truth. that there are going to be moments where when you proclaim good news and when you do good works that there are going to be people who revile and reject it. There are going to be people who revile and reject it. This is why verse 14 immediately qualifies verse 13. Though our ultimate hope is that our good works, the gospel accompanied by our good works will will um help others come to know Jesus. We also know that it will at times cause others to hate us because they hate Jesus.

Because they hate Jesus. Why? Because at the end of the day, nobody likes nobody likes having their sin revealed. Nobody likes it. It's why we oftentimes say when you first hear the gospel, it's bittersweet. It's bittersweet.

It's bitter because it exposes like when when you're first introduced to Jesus and someone says Jesus is a man who lived 2,000 years ago who came from eternity past as the second person of the Trinity and he stepped into our humanity and he lived a perfect life. Nobody likes perfect people, right? like your friends that you have who think they do it all right, who always think that they say the right things, who always live the right way or who have the perfect Instagram account. Nobody likes those people. Nobody likes those people. You either envy them because you want to be like them, but in regards you just want to be better than them because you don't like them.

Nobody likes perfect people because it exposes your imperfection. It exposes where you're not as good, you're not living up, you're not doing as well, you're not whatever. And so when we're first introduced to Jesus, his light shines on us and exposes everything. It exposes everything. And our first fallen nature is to reject it because how dare you tell me I'm a sinner. How dare you expose me?

That's the only it's a coping mechanism in the fallen culture is to not shine my imperfection. And so the only way I can do that is to reject the light and then shine imperfection on others. Well, I'm not as bad as so and so over here. Have you seen what they've done? Have you seen what they've said? And so, that's what we do.

It's it's natural for us to do that. We want to reject Jesus first because it exposes our sin. We don't like it. We don't like it. And so if Jesus can be rejected, how much more are you going to be rejected when we proclaim good news and do good works when we actually have imperfections as well? Man, people are not going to like that.

People are not going to like that. And that's what he's saying here. It's going to be possible that you might be rejected. So people become defensive when confronted with moral clarity because conscience is awakened. I mean I think that's why the Bible often times commands us to wake up to wake up. Stop sleeping.

Stop being blind. You need to see your imperfections so that you can see the perfection of him and then see what he did. and by becoming your imperfections so that he might give you his perfection. And then once he gives you his perfection, now you're able to get back to Eden. You're able to get back to relationship with God. You're able to be back in presence with your creator.

But again, we got to get to that place. And people don't want to get there because they can't get past the imperfection. I mean, just contrast this for a moment with what we see in scripture. Those who were physically blind, physically blind, so they couldn't see anything by faith, they could spiritually see Jesus and follow him. But those who had physical sight by fear could not spiritually see Jesus and follow him. This is what the world's experiencing.

And who were the ones when you see Jesus interact with those in scripture, who were the ones who reviled him and rejected him? Those who could physically see him. Those who even had access to to the Old Testament scriptures. And so fear produced in them a rejection of Christ because they weren't willing to give up their livelihoods. But those who had nothing and could not see anything by faith when they saw Jesus, man, they followed him. They trust in him.

They're blessed. In other words, the self-reliant of Jesus' day feared losing their social status, material wealth, and therefore rejected Jesus. And Peter confronts precise precisely this dynamic. He says, "The fear of losing what you have reveals where your heart is ultimately placed. It reveals what you worship. It reveals what you worship.

If I'm unwilling to give up my life for Jesus, then I love my life more than I do Jesus. And unfortunately, there's no peace there. Only fear. And fear is exhausting, is it not? I mean, fear is exhausting because you're holding on to something you have no control over. You're holding on to something you have no control over.

The modern world is exhausted by image maintenance, ideological performance, fear of exhaustion or fear of exclusion. And Peter calls believers to something radically different. Radically different. Freedom from fear of man. Freedom from fear of man. Do not fear them.

Fear God. Fear God. When Christ is your king and his kingdom is your inheritance, then you have everything you'll ever need for all eternity. And so therefore, Peter says in verse 14, even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, don't worry. You're blessed. You're blessed.

What's the worst thing that they can do? Kill you? All they did was fasttrack your inheritance and you get to spend eternity with Christ. like that you're the most blessed. I mean, I think that's why literally when you when you go back to church history and you look at the martyrs, you look at the apostles, like they they it was like the greatest thing you could do for one of them is to persecute them and kill them because that's what they did to Jesus. They're like, "I'm not even worthy to experience the same death, but it is a badge of honor if that's what you're going to do because it it's the closest I can get to following Jesus."

And so that should reshape how we view persecution and suffering in our world, especially when when it happens to us for proclaiming something that's good for them. Like what we proclaim is good for everyone. It's good for everyone. It's the best thing for everyone. Hey, if you don't change your life, you're going to spend an eternity in hell, separated from God, where it's nothing but the weeping and nashing of teeth. Like, it's it's ultimate torment and torture, pain and suffering for all eternity.

And what we want to communicate to you is that we were no different. We were no better than you. But we finally met someone and we're introduced to someone who's better than everyone because he's sinless and he's perfect. And here's what he did for you. Here's what he did for you. All of that eternal punishment and pain and suffering that you are to experience because of your mess ups and your imperfections and your sins in life that again are against a good, holy, and righteous God.

all of that. This perfect person came and said, "I'm going to pay the penalty for them. I'm going to substitute my place or uh their place and I'm going to go and be on the cross on their behalf." And so that they don't have to pay that. And then guess what? You don't even have to pay for it.

You don't have to pay for it. He freely gives it out. He gives forgiveness to anybody who by faith believes that that's what he came to do and that he is who he says he is. Like it's a free gift and it's the greatest gift. There's nothing in the world like it. Nothing in the world like it.

And so what we're actually proclaiming is the best thing for people. But yet there are going to be some who just won't receive it. They won't receive it because they fear themselves. They fear the world more than they fear God. More than they fear God. Jordan Peterson has repeatedly argued that meaning is discovered through voluntarily carrying suffering in pursuit of the highest good.

It's a direct quote from him. And he correctly recognizes that comfort alone cannot sustain the soul. So he's like, if your highest good or your highest aim is comfort in life, that's not going to sustain your soul. It's why when you worship food, you can never have enough. It's why if you worship sex, you can never have enough. When you worship self, you can never be enough.

But Peter presses the crucial question Peterson has been wrestling with for the last decade. What is the highest good? What is the highest good? Because though Jordan Peterson often speaks of transcending meaning, sacrifice, truthful speech, responsibility, again, these are all good things. All things that are present in the person of Jesus, he still falls short in acknowledging that they are exclusively found in the person of Jesus. Exclusively found in the person of Jesus.

In our text, Peter clarifies it for a person like Peterson. In your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy. In your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy. And so, the Christian does not merely endure suffering for some abstract meaning or the highest good. The believer suffers because Christ is Lord. Because Christ is Lord.

This changes suffering fundamentally. Suffering is no longer meaningless chaos. It becomes participation in the logos of Christ, the pattern of Christ, the purpose and order of Christ. And so let's let's let's dive into that a little bit deeper when he says, "Have no fear of them nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord is holy." Because this is, I think, the theological the psychological center of the text. What Peter does in this is he's actually reaching all the way back into Isaiah 8.

He's diving back into that culture and in that context and he's quoting from Isaiah 8. And what hap what's happening in that culture in that context is you have Judah is freaking out. Nations are threatening them. Politics are unstable. The future feels uncertain for them. Everybody's anxious.

Everybody's afraid. Does that sound familiar? Like if you were to put the your fingers on the pulse of our culture, that's what our culture feels like right now. And God's answer to them is fascinating. He doesn't say, "Here's your five-step plan for national recovery." He doesn't say, "Don't worry.

Nothing is nothing bad is going to happen." He says, "Do not fear what they fear." do not fear what they fear. Why? Because everybody's worshiping something. Meaning, everybody fears something.

Everybody has something they cannot afford to lose. And whatever you cannot afford to lose will eventually control you. It will control you. It orders you or disorders you. If your reputation, for example, if your reputation is your savior, then you'll be terrified of criticism. If acceptance is your savior, then you'll live terrified of rejection.

If comfort is your savior, you'll live terrified of losing a job. If political victory is your savior, you'll live terrified every election cycle. If being in shape is your savior, you'll be terrified of aging. Happy birthday, Ransford. By the way, whatever sits on the throne of your heart becomes the thing that governs your life. That's it.

Whatever sits on the throne of your heart is what governs your life. It's what governs your life. That's why Isaiah says, "Do not fear what they fear. Do not worship what they worship." Because your life is going to begin reflecting it. That's why Peter does something shocking here.

Isaiah says, "Honor the Lord of hosts as holy." Peter says, "Honor Christ, the Lord as holy." In other words, what Peter's doing here is Peter's taking a passage about Yahweh in the Old Testament and unapologetically applies it to Jesus. This isn't a devotional thought. This is a declaration in the moment to these people who are living in exile that the same Yahweh, the same Lord who met them there is meeting you here and we get to say the same thing 2,000 years removed from it. Peter's point is that courage doesn't come from trying harder not to be afraid.

Courage comes from replacing a lesser fear with a greater one. It's replacing a false god with the one true God. And so it's if you're if the throne of your heart has a false god on it, it's you saying get off. He's taking the seat. the one true God and I'm gonna worship him and incline my heart towards him instead of anything and everything else. And so the question isn't whether you're worshiping something.

The question is what are you worshiping? What are you worshiping? And some of the best ways to kind of figure that out is to just audit your life. How am I spending my time? How am I spending my money? How am I spending my free time, my relationships?

How am I leveraging uh the skills that I have that God has provided for me? What am I doing with those things will oftenimes reveal who's sitting on your the throne of your heart. And Peter says if Christ occupies the throne of your heart, criticism loses its power, suffering loses its sting, and even death loses its final word. Because you don't fear those things. You don't fear those things. Whatever sits on the throne of your heart becomes the thing that governs your life.

And it also, listen to this, it also becomes the story that others read. It becomes the story that others read. And that's why I believe Peter goes next once the soul is stabilized by Christ centered worship, he goes to always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks for a reason for the hope that is in you. Don't miss Peter's logic here. Peter doesn't say people are asking because Christians have all the answers. That's not what he's saying.

He doesn't say they're asking because Christians have easy lives. He doesn't say they're asking because Christians never struggle. What they are noticing, what the world is noticing is hope. That's what they're drawing in on. They're saying there's something weird about these sojourers and exiles who are in a land that is not their own, who are living in chaos and yet aren't reacting as if things are chaotic. What's the deal?

Why do they have hope? What is their hope? What are they hoping in? And so in other words, what this is drawing in on is the fact that Christians suffer, but somehow they're not crushed. They get criticized, but they're not consumed by criticism. They get slandered, but they don't become bitter towards those who are slandering them.

They get pressured, and yet they're patient. What's the deal, Christians? Why are you the way you are? That's what the world is yelling at them and wanting to know what's the secret sauce. What makes you different? Because as humans, we're all experiencing these trials and these sufferings and these hard times and yet you look like you're not even though you are.

What's the difference? And eventually people start asking these questions. Sometimes that response creates curiosity. Sometimes it creates hostility, but either way, it gets noticed because hope is a strange thing in a hopeless world. Hope is a strange thing in a hopeless world. And so, think about the cultural moment we're living in right now.

We've got more technology than ever. We've got more entertainment than ever. We've got more comfort than ever. more access than ever to anything and everywhere. I mean, like right now, you would probably have the means to say, "I want to go to the other side of the world and I can get there within one day." Think about that for a minute.

That's crazy. 500 years ago, if someone was like, "I'm going to go to the other side of the world," you kiss them good goodbye because you might not ever see them again. We have everything at our fingertips. And yet the world's exhausted. So it didn't it hasn't led to peace. It's led to exhaustion.

It's actually being dubbed right now the fatigue. The fatigue. Everyone's anxious, angry, lonely, fragmented. Everyone's outraged about something. Everybody's afraid of something. Everyone's searching for something.

Why? Because human beings were made to worship and the things they're worshiping aren't fulfilling what they're longing for. I mean, honestly, I think that's why right now, I mean, theologians, um, I say theologians right now, it's more of just social media, Christians, influencers, whatnot, but the majority of them are saying like the whole atheism movement and new atheism movement is dead. Like people are more open to spirituality now because they tried that thing and then they saw the fruit of it and they didn't like how it tasted and they're like maybe there is something more than just nothing and so maybe there's something and we're open to something and so what is it? What is that thing? And I look at that and I say evangelistic opportunity.

This is where Christians step into that moment where people are open to something and we show them, we define what is good. We show them what is good. We perform for them what is good. And that good thing has a name and his name is Jesus. Nobody lives without a highest good. Nobody lives without something sitting on the throne of their heart.

And when Christ is removed from that throne, substitutes rush in. And that's what the world's experiencing. Substitutes rush in. I mean, just think about Romans 1. When you exchange the truth about God for a lie, you start worshiping creation rather than creator. And therefore, substitutes then begin taking the throne of your heart.

And so the world right now, they're still running after politics, success, sexuality, comfort, identity, tribe, status, validation, power. They're running after all these things that take the throne of their hearts and it's not working and they're exhausted. Evangelistic opportunity. It's an opportunity for us. The problem is not that those things are not important. The problem is that we ask them to become ultimate and they're never meant to be that.

They were never meant to be that. Anything less than God collapses under the weight of worship that's meant for God. We got to believe that. We got to know that because we still fall into the same fear. It's why it's why he's literally telling them, "Don't fear the things that they are fearing because you might be tempted to do that. You might be tempted to to to worry about whether or not you're going to have enough money at the end of the month or worry about whether or not you're going to keep your job or worry about whether or not someone's going to criticize you if you say something or worrying about what other people think about you or fill in the blank."

And he's saying, ' Don't let those things become the throne of your heart. Christ takes his throne. And I think this is why people are restless. It's why they're angry. It's why they're exhausted. They're asking created things to do what only the creator can do.

And then they meet a Christian. Not a perfect Christian, not a pain-free Christian, not a Christian who never struggles, but a Christian who has suffered and somehow still has hope. That's what Peter's talking about here. A Christian who has been disappointed and still has hope. A Christian who has buried loved ones and still has hope. A Christian who has been betrayed and still has hope.

a Christian who has who has been a Christian who can lose things without losing themselves. And suddenly the question becomes where does that come from? Where does that come from? Where do you get that? That's Peter's point. Faithful endurance creates evangelistic opportunity.

That's the big idea here. Christian apologetics is not merely knowing more than the other guy. It is displaying a hope that dumbfounds the world. That's what it's doing. And when that moment comes, Peter does say, "Be ready." So, it's not it's not just living like it's not just when you're Has anyone ever seen that reel of the guy?

It's from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean where the boat's just like blowing up and the guy's like slowly walking down the steps. Has anyone seen that? No. Sorry. Terrible analogy here. Um, thank you.

But anyway, like it's not just that, which is that is part of the Christian life is we're basically walking, everything's blowing up around us and we're just peaceful. Like we're unaffected by it. But what what completes it and what Peter's getting at here is when someone asks, "Why are you so patient?" You will also have to be ready to tell them. You got to be ready to tell them. That's why it's good works and good word.

Good word. You got to have a good word to be able to tell them why you're doing the good works. why you're unshaken. And so Peter says, be ready to tell them why. Be ready to tell them your hope is not in politics, not in success, not in health, not in circumstances, not in your own strength. Your hope is Christ.

Christ eternal, Christ incarnate, Christ crucified, Christ risen, Christ reigning, Christ returning, Christ the King. That's your hope. That's your hope. And you got to be ready to explain it to them. The reason Christians don't collapse under suffering is because our hope is anchored in something stronger than it. A living hope in a dying world.

Christ is the living hope. Go back to chapter one and reread that again. He caused you to be born again to a living hope. Well, how were we born again? He died and was resurrected so that you can die to your sin and your identity and be resurrected to a new life and a new identity in which in that new life and new identity you have living hope where this cannot affect you anymore. Don't fear any of this stuff anymore.

Trust this. Trust him. Trust what he has for you. It's something the world cannot manufacture because living hope is only found in a living savior. It comes from Christ. The world cannot manufacture what Christ is.

They can try but it doesn't work. So be prepared to give an answer for the living hope that is in you. And yet do it with gentleness and respect having a good conscience. Again, this is coming back to to trusting the fact like he tells you not to be fearful. So that when you also give a an answer for the hope that is in you, there might be people who don't want to hear that or want to debate and argue with you. And he's saying as you give the reason for the hope, don't become hypocritical in what you're actually explaining.

So don't start don't don't don't retaliate. don't react in the same way that they're reacting towards you. The crazy thing to me would be someone who's saying, "Yeah, man. You're right. Like, my entire life is just falling apart around me, but I have got this living hope and this patience that comes from the Lord because I know my eternity is secure in Christ." It's amazing.

I want you to know that. And then for them to say something like, "Are you kidding me? Jesus was just a good man. He's not actually God. He's not done. He's just he's just similar to like Prophet Muhammad or something.

And then all of a sudden for you to say, "Hold up a second. How dare you talk about my Jesus that way?" And all of a sudden now you're like he's like, "Wait a minute. I thought you were the patient guy. I thought you were the one that could not be, you know." So we have to also maintain that when we speak truth and when we share the gospel, we're doing it in a way that represents the posture of the living hope that we are living out.

Don't ruin your witness because you have a hot head. Sometimes some people get wounded and become angry. Some get hurt and become cynical. Some get rejected and become hard. But Peter says Christians can get wounded and somehow become more gracious. Somehow they can become more gracious and gentle and respectful.

How? Because the hope of Christ is in me. Galatians 2:20, I've been crucified with Christ. I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And so the life I live in the body I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. It's just reminding ourselves of that over and over and over and over again that I don't have to convince people.

I don't have to outar argue people. I just get to share the goodness of Christ and what he's accomplished in my life. I share that hope with anybody that's willing to hear it. And if they are not willing to hear it and and like what were they like what did Jesus do when they were reviling and rejecting him? He did not open his mouth. He received their rejection.

He received their persecution. He received the torturing that they gave him. I think it's the one reason why when Peter cuts the guy's ear off, Jesus rebukes him. Peter, we're not going to advance this by that way. You're going to have a real hard time getting that guy to hear anything you have to say, Peter, because you just chopped his ear off. We'll just close the sermon on that one, I guess.

All right. Again, Christianity is not the absence of suffering. is the presence of re resurrection power in it. The only power in existence to inject life where there is death comes from the spirit of God. That's the hope that we have that when when it looks like we are dying outside inside wellsp springs of hope that cannot shake us. And so bring on the wrinkles, bring on the pain, bring on the suffering, bring on the trials and the tribulation.

They're not going to shake us because we know we have an eternity without wrinkles, an eternity without suffering, an eternity where there's no more tears. And Christ has secured all of that for us. And so we can look ahead and rejoice in knowing what we're going to be receiving in Christ. And therefore, where we are now, be unshaken and unmoved regardless of what happens to us. and display to others the hope that we have in that we are patient, kind, gentle, loving, showing good to others so that they that they might see our good deeds and begin glorifying God on the day of visitation. And he says this out of having a good conscience so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.

Again, he's saying, "Practice what you preach. Live out what you preach. Don't be hypocritical." If your suffering is just because other people see your good or see the word that you're proclaiming and they don't like it because they don't like their sin, but they're taking it out on you and you're suffering for that, you're blessed. It's a good thing. But if the suffering that you're receiving and the world falling apart around you is because of your own stupid mishaps and your own foolish decisions and your own sin.

He's saying that ain't the same thing. Those consequences that's on you. So he's saying make sure that you're not uh confusing suffering here. Make sure that you're doing it from a clean conscience. For it's better to suffer for doing good, if that be God's will for you, than for doing evil. If you're suffering because you've done evil and has brought on those consequences in your life, that's on you.

That's on you. And you're going to have to live with that in this side of heaven and glory. Doesn't mean that God doesn't forgive. It doesn't mean that God doesn't cover it by grace. Doesn't mean that you don't still get the inheritance there. But what he's saying is when that happens here, there's going to be some of it that's on you and you had control over that.

And he's saying, don't let that be what you think suffering is. Suffering for righteousness sake is when we're living out the life of Christ and others don't like it and reject it. That's what he's talking about in regards to that. He's saying, "Make sure that the way you live among the pagans around you, among the sinners around you, that you're not engaging in the same things that they're engaging in and bringing consequences on your life, and then you're trying to manufacture hope in that in some way to be able to say, "Look, look how amazing things are. Even though I was doing something stupid, God's still great." He's saying that doesn't wow the world.

that actually makes the world look at it and says, "Man, I don't know that I want to follow your God if you can just do whatever you want to do and there's no consequence for that. There's no like I don't know that I would want to follow that God. I want to follow a God that actually gives justice out. I want to follow a God that's good, that's holy, that's righteous." And that's where you can shine the light on Jesus and what he's accomplished for us that he actually does pay for our sins. and forgives us in it.

And here's the greatest example that we see in verse 18. Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. Someone who came to this world to define what is good because the world had lost it. To define what is good, to live out what is good. I mean, he came healing people. He came feeding people.

He came doing miracles. He performed so many good deeds for a world that doesn't deserve them in order for them to possibly by faith follow and trust in him. And yet in order for him to do that, as he's doing that, as he's defining what's good and proclaiming what's good and performing what's good, the world rejects him for it. And he suffers it to the point of death on a cross as Philippians 2 tells us. and he was willing to do that and he didn't react. I mean, how many times could Jesus had just like as as they're smacking him and ripping hair out and putting a crown of thorns on him and lashing him and and and just torturing him, he is the one who created them.

In all honesty, he has the authority to just say, "Stop. Go to hell." He has the authority to stop them in their tracks because you got to remember Colossians 1, everything's upheld by Christ. Everything remains as it is because of Christ. The the the the ability for my vocal cords right now to be able to speak words and come out is because Christ is allowing it to happen. At any moment, Christ can shut me up.

At any moment, Christ can change water and turn it into something else. He can do whatever he wants. He created the things. He put the things into motion. At any moment when they were rearing back the hammers to nail the the the the the nails into his hands, he could have stopped them in that moment and removed from them the ability to be able to do those things. He did not react with their same energy and zeal, but instead his zeal to go to the cross and die on it in order to forgive us of those sins of killing him.

That's what he submits himself to and remains patient through the process. What's he say on the cross? Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. That should be the common denominator posture of every single Christian is that when we engage the world with the gospel and they want to cause suffering of us because of it. Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing.

So, we're not slicing off ears. We're not retaliating with louder words or more anger or anything. No, we're we're we're responding with the fruit of the spirit because we're looking at how Jesus responded when he when he suffered. Father, forgive them for they do not know what they're doing. And what a better way to come to communion and remembering that Jesus, what we're asked to practice, what we're commanded to live out in this passage, Jesus is our perfect example. He's our perfect example.

the righteous one who suffered and then asks us to live out righteousness and you might suffer for it. We can have hope because as he suffered and was even put to death because of it, the Holy Spirit that brought him back to life on the third day is the same Holy Spirit that grants life to us in the midst of our suffering. So have hope in that. Have hope in that. And then let the world be dumbfounded by it. So that as you have hope in that, they start asking questions out of curiosity.

Where does that come from? Where does that come from? Father, we thank you so much for your word this morning. We thank you for good news. We thank you for grace. We thank you for mercy.

We thank you for your son Jesus and all that he has accomplished. We know that his perfection causes the world to stir because the world is not perfect and they're starving for it. They want eternity. They want riches forever more. And the crazy thing is is that we get those things in you. In you following Jesus, we get to be righteous and holy in God's sight.

And we also get an inheritance where we are co-airs with Christ for all eternity. So everything the world wants is found in Jesus. Father, may we live that out so that as they see the hope that we have in Christ, we are prepared to give an answer for the for that reason alone. And we are praying that they will come to know Jesus just as we have as well. And Father, we're so thankful that we did not have to pay it, but instead Christ paid for it on our behalf. He broke his body.

He shed his blood. He paid our death. And because he was given life on the third day and resurrected to a glorified body, we too will die to our sins, die to our fallen nature, and we will follow Jesus and be resurrected to a new life, a new identity, a new hope, a new peace, a new heart, a heart that has Christ sitting on the throne, that our hearts are inclined towards him to declare him as Christ as holy. and to worship him and not fear anything else in life. All of that is because of your love for us and what you did. Thank you, God.

We honor you. We worship you. We love you. We bow to you. It's in your name we pray. Amen.

Would you please stand with me as we come to this time of communion? This is a time for us to remember exactly what Christ accomplished for us so that we could be here in this room in this moment worshiping Jesus and not worshiping anything else. We thank Christ for that. You would not be here today if it weren't for what Christ did for you 2,000 years ago. And so we thank him that he broke his body and he shed his blood to forgive you of your sins and to bring you back into relationship with God. And so if you believe Christ did that for you, then I invite you to come down, grab the elements, bring them back to your seats.

We'll partake together at the end of the song.