1 Peter 3
Things aren’t fair.
You’re going through some hard times.
Nobody likes hard times,
We want to get to the other side of hard times a quick as
possible.
There’s a county song that encourages us:
“If you’re going through hell, keep on going, don’t slow down.”
(Atkins Rodney)
Last couple of weeks we been looking for Encouragement In The Hard Times.
We’re considering what Peter wrote to believers who were facing
persecution for their faith.
We’ve seen the difference between consequences and trials.
Consequences are the result of sin.
Trails on the other hand come from God to
Correct us,
Perfect us,
Or to Infect others with the Gospel.
We’ve been encouraged to learn that
God’s grace is sufficient to see us through the hard times of a trial and
that we are to allow others to encourage us by letting them share in
carrying our burden.
You don’t have to suffer alone.
God gave you a spiritual family to help you.
Part of the correcting of a trial might just be to help you surrender an
independent spirit,
to help you get rid of pride and replace it with authentic
humility.
To teach you that you can depend on others.
We’ve been encouraged to remember that even in the darkest hour of a trial:
God has not forgotten you.
God will keep you obedient.
God will give you His best.
God has secured for you a good future.
God is keeping watch over you.
God has great things in store for you.
Part of the perfecting of a trial might just be to deepen your relationship with
God and discover first hand that He is faithful,
trustworthy, loving, and mighty to deliver.
I’ve been encouraged to see that my hard times might have nothing really to do
with me, but rather my trial is an opportunity to be used by God.
When I signed on to be a disciple,
I trusted God to do with me and through me what He thinks
best.
So He has my permission to afflict me to infect
others.
How we handle the hard times may just infect those watching us with
the Gospel.
Today I want to steer our thoughts to how our trials, our hard times, can be used of
God for evangelism.
The hard times you are going through just might be so that someone
else will come to faith in Christ because of the way you handle
yourself.
When we spread the good news of the Gospel—
That we’re in a mess,
That Jesus turns messes into masterpieces,
That by following Jesus can live our lives to the full,
We are doing evangelism.
Evangelism is simply telling others about Jesus.
Telling others about what God has done in your life.
Evangelism is part of the Great Commission given to every follower of Jesus.
If you are a Christian, Jesus has commanded you to evangelize.
Matthews 28:19-20 (NIV)
“…go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.
The going and making is evangelism.
The teaching is discipling.
Every believer is to be an evangelist.
We are required to share our faith with others.
But most of us are timid,
lily livered,
spineless,
yellow bellied,
namby-pamby;
wishy-Washy,
cowardly,
chicken-hearted
warriors for the Kingdom
when it comes to sharing our faith with others.
After all we don’t want to offend any one do we?
We don’t want people to think of us as intolerant,
Or a Jesus Fanatic, a zealot or something horrible like
That, do we?
If that sounds harsh with a nasty sarcastic bite,
its just because I’m mad at myself for letting far too many opportunities to
tell some one about how God can make a difference in their life slide.
Individuals have big problems and I have the biggest answer and I don’t tell them
because I’m afraid or because I don’t think I have the time.
I think you can label that as sloppy living.
1 Peter 1:17 (MSG)
You call out to God for help and he helps—he's a good Father that way. But don't forget, he's also a responsible Father, and won't let you get by with sloppy living.
Having commanded us to evangelize and not wanting us to get by with sloppy
living by excusing ourselves from doing what He wants,
God may visit you with a trial that has as its sole purpose to win
others to Christ.
We’re going to read 1 Peter chapter 3 to see if my hypothesis is correct.
That hard times can be a tool for evangelism.
Let me remind you that the believers that Peter has written to are in the
midst of a hard time.
People are generally suspicious of Christians.
Believers seem to them a threat to the established order,
Disrupting political, religious and family life.
Haven’t you heard the rumors,
They get together and eat human flesh and blood,
They call it the body and blood of Christ.
Haven’t you heard they are incestuous.
Brothers and sisters greeting each other with kisses.
Haven’t you heard that their love feast is just a big orgy.
Haven’t you heard that they believe all the gods are false except
for theirs, that they are the only ones with the truth.
Yeah they are encouraging women and slaves to get uppity,
And children to disobey their fathers.
Prejudice is starting to boiling over into persecution.
Suffering prejudice and persecution is a hard time.
Peter is writing some words of advice as to how to conduct the affairs
of their lives in the midst of this kind of trial.
1 Peter 3:1-22 (MSG)
The same goes for you wives: Be good wives to your husbands, responsive to their needs. There are husbands who, indifferent as they are to any words about God, will be captivated by your life of holy beauty. What matters is not your outer appearance—the styling of your hair, the jewelry you wear, the cut of your clothes—but your inner disposition.
Cultivate inner beauty, the gentle, gracious kind that God delights in. The holy women of old were beautiful before God that way, and were good, loyal wives to their husbands. Sarah, for instance, taking care of Abraham, would address him as "my dear husband." You'll be true daughters of Sarah if you do the same, unanxious and unintimidated.
7 The same goes for you husbands: Be good husbands to your wives. Honor them, delight in them. As women they lack some of your advantages. But in the new life of God's grace, you're equals. Treat your wives, then, as equals so your prayers don't run aground.
8 Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that's your job, to bless. You'll be a blessing and also get a blessing.
10 Whoever wants to embrace life and see the day fill up with good, Here's what you do: Say nothing evil or hurtful; Snub evil and cultivate good; run after peace for all you're worth. God looks on all this with approval, listening and responding well to what he's asked; But he turns his back on those who do evil things.
13 If with heart and soul you're doing good, do you think you can be stopped? Even if you suffer for it, you're still better off. Don't give the opposition a second thought. Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you're living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy. Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. They'll end up realizing that they're the ones who need a bath. It's better to suffer for doing good, if that's what God wants, than to be punished for doing bad. That's what Christ did definitively: suffered because of others' sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones. He went through it all—was put to death and then made alive—to bring us to God.
19 He went and proclaimed God's salvation to earlier generations who ended up in the prison of judgment because they wouldn't listen. You know, even though God waited patiently all the days that Noah built his ship, only a few were saved then, eight to be exact—saved from the water by the water. The waters of baptism do that for you, not by washing away dirt from your skin but by presenting you through Jesus' resurrection before God with a clear conscience. Jesus has the last word on everything and everyone, from angels to armies. He's standing right alongside God, and what he says goes.
Trails are for correction, perfection, and infection.
The hard times you are in right now may be for the sole purpose of
Evangelism, to make you infectious.
As you endure hard times,
As you keep on keeping on in the midst of calamity and catastrophe,
Those who do not know God are watching
To see how you hold up.
Your conduct under fire can win others to Christ.
God has commanded you to evangelize,
He’s going to help you do it.
Over run with adversity?
Ransacked by sorrow?
Caught in a tsunami of suffering?
Job “believed God to be worthy of worship even when
everything was taken away and life turned terribly ugly.” (Earley, p. 25)
Job 1:20-22 (MSG)
Job got to his feet, ripped his robe, shaved his head, then fell to the ground and worshiped: “ Naked I came from my mother's womb, naked I'll return to the womb of the earth. God gives, God takes. God's name be ever blessed.” Not once through all this did Job sin; not once did he blame God.
How we do life in the midst of suffering is a powerful testimony of what you
believe.
The believers that Peter wrote to were in hard times.
There was a lot of false accusations that was painting believers to be very
bad people.
“Christians were viewed with suspicion, as malefica, the bringers of evil.”
(Earley p. 100)
The government viewed believers as dissidents,
Political enemies, usurpers of authority, lawless.
So Peter wrote --silence all those lies by living a life of righteousness.
Live a life of love.
Peter tells Christian wives not to use their new status in Christ to be rebellious
against their non-believing husbands.
Wives, don’t go to war over religion.
Fulfill you duties at home.
1 Peter 3:5-6 (MSG)
The holy women of old … were good, loyal wives to their husbands. Sarah, for instance, taking care of Abraham, would address him as "my dear husband.”
Christian wife God’s grace will empower you to do a better job taking care of you
husband than you ever thought possible.
As you love on him, he “will be
captivated by your life of holy beauty.” (1 Peter 3:1-2 (MSG)
Then Peter tells husbands, honor your wife, delight in your wife, treat your wife as
an equal.
That was unheard of in the day.
An unbelieving wife can be lead to faith by a husband who
honors, delights and cherishes her.
Marriage is hard work,
When our relationship is strained and going bad,
Life gets rather miserable, hard work becomes a hard time.
For some of us our marriage is a trial right now.
Peter tells us make the way you do your marriage relationship a
tool for evangelism.
Don’t give outsiders an opportunity to confirm their suspicions about Christians.
Instead on the home front—
1 Peter 3:8-9 (MSG)
Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble… no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that's your job, to bless.
What goes on in the home is to spill out into the community.
Be the best citizen you can be,
Find something good to do for others and do it.
Make your self an asset to your community.
Love, love, love—seek to meet the needs of others even
at the cost of personal sacrifice.
When you are being treated unfairly by someone,
return good for their evil.
It forces them to rethink their position.
1 Peter 3:14-16 (MSG)
Even if you suffer for it, you're still better off. Don't give the opposition a second thought. Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you're living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy. Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. They'll end up realizing that they're the ones who need a bath.
When you’re going through hard times,
Call on God to give you the grace to preserve and to thrive.
Then “Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you're
living the way you are, and always with the utmost
courtesy.”
God sometimes allows trials to come crashing into our lives,
To give us a powerful testimony.
The more we endure, the greater the attraction to our story.
The greater the attraction the louder our message,
The louder the message, the clearer people hear about
how God gives His children strength to keep on keeping on in
the most difficult of situations,
how God is mighty to deliver us out of hard times,
after the hard time has done its work in us.
Peter again turns our attention to Jesus who is our example in all things.
1 Peter 3:18 (MSG)
That's what Christ did definitively: suffered because of others' sins, the Righteous One for the unrighteous ones. He went through it all—was put to death and then made alive—to bring us to God.
“Maybe the reason you are suffering is to open up doors of testimony that would
have been otherwise closed.
Maybe your suffering will allow you to reach someone for Christ who
might not be reached otherwise.” (Earely, p. 136)
Maybe your trial is making you infectious,
forcing you to evangelize.
Your life always speaks louder than your words anyway.
Maybe because of what you are going through right now,
Someone in your world is going to put their faith in Christ.
Your pain may bring someone to God.
If you don’t find any encouragement in that thought
that God is using your hard times to win others to Christ,
then at least I hope you find some in the fact that Jesus has the last
word.
1 Peter 3:22 (MSG)
Jesus has the last word on everything and everyone, from angels to armies. He's standing right alongside God, and what he says goes.
So if we conduct our lives during a trial like Peter tells us
Being submissive, being the servant, for one another.
Being agreeable,
Being sympathetic,
Being loving,
Being compassionate,
Being humble.
Refusing to retaliate,
Refraining from sharp-tongued sarcasm (1 Peter 3:8-9 (MSG)
1 Peter 3:10-11 (MSG)
Say nothing evil or hurtful; Snub evil and cultivate good; run after peace for all you're worth.
1 Peter 3:15 (MSG)
Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ…
1 Peter 3:16 (MSG)
[Keeping] a clear conscience before God…
I believe that you will experience the truth of Psalm 37
Psalms 37:6 (NIV)
He will make
your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
Peter gives us to important keys for dealing with the hard times.
Seek the peace of God
Keep our hearts focused on Jesus
And keep a clear conscience before God.
The way you seek the peace of God and
The way to keep your heart focused on Jesus
is by practicing the 7 Habits of Discipleship
—those seven spiritual disciplines.
Read the bible, pray,
Be in fellowship, serve, worship and obey.
Then there’s contemplation,
Hard times always require contemplation.
The way to keep a clear conscience before God,
Is to be obedient.
Make sure that there is nothing hindering your relationship with
God.
Nothing that remains un-confessed, un-forgiven,
And therefore uncontrollable in your life.
Seeking the peace of God,
Staying focused on Jesus,
And keeping a clear conscience won’t end your trial.
But it will help you spiritually thrive in the midst of it.
Today what I want you to walk away with is that the hard times you are going
through just might be so that someone else will come to faith in Christ
because of the way you handle yourself.
You been given a list of behaviors that are expected by a disciple of Jesus.
And we have been reminded of Jesus example,
So its now up to you to go and do it.