Rev. William J. Shields St. Mark Lutheran Church, Lindenhurst, Illinois Palm Sunday April 13, 2014 Second Lesson 1 Peter 3:13-22 1 Sermon Series 1 Peter Part 7 A Reason For The Hope 13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 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, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. 18 For 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, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. I read a story recently about a young woman who worked as a tutor for the Dallas Public School District. Her job was to visit students who had long-term absences, usually because of illness or injury, and help them to keep up with their subjects, so that they would be ready to go back to school when they got better. One day, she had to go to a hospital to visit a little boy who was assigned to her. When she walked into his room, she was shocked by what she saw. He had suffered severe burns and he was in excruciating pain. But she decided not to make a big deal about it. She just introduced herself and then she sat down and started the lessons. This went on for several days until one day, when the tutor came in, a nurse pulled her aside to talk to her. The nurse asked, What have you been doing with that little boy? The tutor said, I haven t been doing anything out of the ordinary. I m just going through his schoolwork with him, helping him to keep up with his classes. The nurse said, Well,
2 you re doing something right. He was in really bad shape and getting worse. We didn t think that he was going to make it. And then you started coming and, all of a sudden, he made a complete turnaround. After your first visit, his whole attitude started to change. He started to be positive and upbeat. He s been very cooperative with the doctors and the nurses. And he s handling the pain a lot better. It s like he suddenly has a will to live that he didn t have before. The teacher was really puzzled by all of this. So when she went in to see the boy, she decided to just be up front with him and ask him about it. She said, One of your nurses was just telling me that your whole attitude has changed since I started coming. You re getting better every day. Why is that happening? The boy said, Before you came, I thought I was going to die. But then you came and taught me that first day and I thought, My school wouldn t waste their time teaching lessons to a boy that was going to die! That, my friends, is the power of hope. And that is what Peter is talking about in our text for today, from the third chapter of 1 Peter. The title of my sermon is A Reason For The Hope. Peter is telling the Christians of his day and he is telling us today that God wants us to live lives of hope, instead of lives of fear. We re going to be looking at verses 13-22 of chapter 3, and in these verses, Peter tells us three important things about Christian hope. First, he tells us the Result of Christian Hope. Second, he tells us the Reason for Christian Hope. And then third, he gives us a Reminder of Christian Hope. So let s begin with that first thing. I. The Result Of Christian Hope Now, normally, when you re discussing a topic, you re going to talk about the results at the end. But Peter decides instead to begin with the results. And he can do that, since it is his book, after all. In verse 13, Peter ties this next section in with what he has written before. He says, Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? Back in chapter 2, Peter talked about submission to the government and submission to your employer. And he s saying here that, if you do what is right, if you are a good citizen and a good employee, then you are usually going to get along in this world. The authorities are not normally going to harass you if you are living a good and decent life. But then he says in verse 14, But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled. He says that there will be times when you will be persecuted even when you are living a good and righteous life. In fact, he says, there are times when you may be persecuted precisely because you are living a good and righteous life. Peter is starting to introduce what is to be the theme for the rest of the book. He is starting to talk about how Christians should live when they are being persecuted for their faith. Remember, he is writing this letter around 64-65 A.D., during the reign of the Roman Emperor Nero, right at the time when some serious persecution is beginning to fall on the Church. So he s saying, I want you to be good citizens and good employees, but that is not always going to protect you from persecution. Satan is active in this world and he
3 is always poking and prodding and pushing the unbelievers to attack the Church of Christ. Now the average unbeliever doesn t know that he or she is being manipulated by Satan. Many of them just have, inside of them, this hostility toward the Church. And when people with hostility toward the Church are in positions of power, they are sometimes going to use that power to attack and persecute the believers. But when that happens, Peter says, Have no fear of them, nor be troubled. He says that, when you are attacked because of your faith, you should not fight back and be nasty and angry. Don t fight fire with fire. Instead, continue to be strong and faithful and positive and hopeful. And when you do that, Peter says that there will be two results of your hopeful attitude. First A. Your Hopefulness Will Be Your Witness For Jesus In verse 15 Peter says, 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. When you are joyful and hopeful, even in the midst of hardship and suffering, people notice that. That s not normal behavior. Normal human behavior, in the midst of suffering, is to moan and groan and complain and lash out against other people, using your suffering as an excuse to be angry and selfish and demanding. And when you act like that in your suffering, the world looks at that and says, I get that. That s the way I would act. That s the way everyone acts. But when you are joyful and hopeful in your suffering, people say, What s up with that person? And they will often ask, Why are you so hopeful? And that s when you have an opportunity to witness. You can say, I am hopeful because, no matter what happens to me in this world, I have the promise of eternal life in Heaven because of what Jesus Christ did for me on the Cross. Your Hopefulness Will Be Your Witness For Jesus. And then a second result of your hopefulness is that B. Your Hopefulness Will Put Your Accusers To Shame In verse 16 Peter says, Have a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. Peter says that, if you want to be able to stand strong in the midst of suffering and in the midst of persecution, then you must have a good conscience, a pure conscience, a clear conscience. Paul says the same thing. They say this because they know that there are unbelievers in the world who are watching Christians like hawks. There are unbelievers who are just waiting to catch a Christian in some sin, so that they can use that sin to ridicule and slander the Church. But when your conscience is clear, when you don t have some secret sin that you are trying to hide from the world, then you can take whatever comes your way. You can be at peace and you can experience joy. And when your enemies come at you, when they slander you and revile you, then they will look like the dishonorable ones. They will look like the fools. And hopefully they will be shamed by it, and they will be moved by your righteousness and by your righteous hope. Maybe they will be moved to
4 repentance and drawn to Christ, because Your Hopefulness Will Put Your Accusers To Shame. So that is the first thing that Peter says about hope in this passage. He talks about The Result Of Christian Hope. Your hopeful attitude is a witness to others for Jesus Christ. And your clear conscience, along with your hopeful attitude, will put your accusers and your persecutors to shame. Then the next thing that Peter talks about is II. The Reason For Christian Hope And the reason is very simple. A Christian can have hope in the midst of the most difficult circumstances and the most severe suffering because the Christian knows that Jesus Christ has won the victory over death. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul says, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?...thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And in verse 18 of our text for this morning Peter says, 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. The earthly body of Jesus died, but his spirit never did. His spirit lived. It was separated from his body for a short time. But then it was reunited with his body when he rose from the dead. And what happened to Jesus is a foreshadowing of what will happen to everyone who believes in him. Every one of us has to die in the body as Jesus did. But if our faith is in Christ, we will not die in the spirit. Our spirits our souls will live on, waiting for the day at the end of this world when they will be reunited with our glorified bodies in heaven. And Peter backs this up with a somewhat difficult passage in verses 19-20. Here s what Peter says. He says that, In the spirit [Jesus] went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. There are a number of possible interpretations of this passage. I m going to zero in on what I believe is the best interpretation and I ll let the scholars out there shake their heads and disagree with me if they want to. But I believe that the spirits that Jesus went to and proclaimed to are fallen angels demons. To help explain this, I need to say a few things about angels. The Bible teaches that there are two kinds of angels. They were divided when there was a great war in heaven. An angel named Satan rebelled against God and then all of the angels had to make a choice. Are we with God? Or are we with the rebels? Those who were loyal to God are the ones who are still called angels. But the ones who rebelled, the fallen angels, are no longer called angels. They are now called demons. The demons, led by Satan, are given some freedom by God to operate in this world. Why God allows Satan and his demons to have some freedom in this world I don t know. That s above my pay grade. I ll ask God that question when I get to Heaven. That s near the top of the list, right after, Why did you create mosquitos? But the freedom that the demons have to operate in this world has limits that are set by God. They can t do just anything that they want to. For instance, they cannot harm the soul of a believer. You stick with God, and they can harm your body, but they
5 cannot touch what really matters your soul. But Peter seems to be saying that, during the time of Noah, some of the demons tried to go beyond the limits that God had placed them under. The corruption of the human race was so great that the demons thought they might actually win. They reignited the war against God in the hope of wiping out the entire human race and claiming the earth as their own. So Peter is saying that God used the flood to destroy corrupt humanity and that, at the same time, he also imprisoned many of the demons permanently in Hell. They no longer had the ability to roam the earth. These were the most demonic of the demons, and God locked them up in the supermax prison of Hell. And Peter says that, when Jesus died on the Cross and won the victory over sin, he then descended into Hell and proclaimed his victory to the demons who were imprisoned there. God had defeated the demons once before, when he saved the human race by preserving Noah and his family in the Ark. And then he defeated the demons again, once and for all, when Jesus died for the sins of the world on the Cross. It was a powerful, triumphant moment for Jesus. And then he rose from the grave and was reunited with his earthly body, so that he could proclaim his victory to the Disciples and to the world. And Peter is saying, when you feel beaten down and discouraged, when you feel weighed down by suffering and persecution, I want you to think about the victory that Jesus won. I want you to think about the booming voice of Jesus, proclaiming to the demons that he has won the battle against sin, and death, and the power of Satan and his demons. Do you want a reason to be hopeful? There is your reason. Do not be discouraged by your suffering. Do not be weighed down by the cares of the world. Do not be defeated by the persecution of unbelievers. Think about the Cross. Think about the victory of Christ. That is The Reason For Christian Hope. And then finally, Peter gives us one more thing to help us to be hopeful in this world of suffering and struggle. He gives us... III. The Reminder About Christian Hope Not too long ago, my good old Uncle Ole wanted to go golfing. But he didn t want to go alone. You see, his eyesight is getting bad and when he hits the ball, he can t see where it goes. So Lena said to him, Why don t you take my father along with you? Ole said, Your father? But he s 94 years old! Lena said, But he has still has great eyesight! So Ole decided to take him along. They got to the first tee and Ole really smacked his drive. It really took off. He said to his father-in-law, Did you see where my ball went? His father-in-law said, Of course I saw it! I have great eyesight! So Ole said, Well, which way did it go? And his father-in-law said, I can t remember. Well people, sometimes we are all kind of like Ole s father-in-law. Sometimes we see the Word of God in the Scriptures, but then we get caught up in the worries of the world and we forget about the great victory that Jesus has won for us. So we need a reminder. And the reminder that Peter gives us is Baptism. Now of course, Peter didn t actually give us Baptism. It was Jesus himself who gave it. In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus said, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. And from that point forward, all Christians have been
6 baptized, as a sign that they are members of this Christian Church and are covered by the blood of Jesus, shed on the Cross. They are included in this great victory that was won by Jesus. And Peter says in verses 21, Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Peter says that it is not the physical act of Baptism that saves you. It is not the water that saves you. You can t be saved just by cleaning the dirt off your body. No, it is what Baptism represents that saves you. Baptism represents your appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Baptism represents your faith in Jesus. And it is your faith that saves you. Noah and his family were saved by the Ark. But they were really saved because they believed in the Word of God. Baptism and faith must go hand in hand. Faith in the victory of Jesus saves you. And Baptism is a Reminder of that Victory. Baptism is like your own personal little Ark. It reminds you that, if you have faith in Jesus, you are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the Cross of Christ forever. Just like that little boy in the hospital, you have A Reason For The Hope that is in you. The boy had hope because a teacher was making plans for his future. And you have hope because Jesus has already won the victory and he has given you your future. He has given you the promise of eternal life in Heaven, where he now sits at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. Amen and Amen.