How Should Christians Defend the Faith? 1 Peter 3:8-18 Thanks be to God Prayer: Father, we know you don t need to be defended, protected, or shielded. You are eternally existent, infinitely powerful, and all good! But you have asked us to be ready to give a reason for the hope you have given us. Help those of us who call ourselves Christ- followers give a reason for our hope in Jesus that is saturated not in anger or fear, but love and that isn t merely words, but is a life lived in obedience to you. I ask that you would work in the hearts of those here who don t yet call you Father, that your Holy Spirit would stir their affections toward you and toward your Son, and Father, please use us, use our words, use our lives to connect people we love to you. But Father, I ask that you keep our eyes, on Him who needs no defender, your Son, Jesus Christ. Intro: At the end of his life, the Roman Emperor Galerius, a man who hated Jesus and hate Christians was dying from a gruesome disease that had consumed his intestines, called for Christians to pray for him. Christians he had persecuted. Christian whose eyes he had gouged out. From whom he ordered limbs removed. Whose families his policies destroyed. Galerius was responsible for the worst Christian persecution of the Roman Empire, so bad that the Roman people began to feel pity for the Christians. Yet something about their character in the face of 1
tremendous suffering told Galerius as he painfully wasted away, if anyone would be willing to pray for him, it would be the Christians. 1 Good morning, my name is Jacob Cates and I m one of the deacons that serve here at Redeemer. In case you have not been with us (or your just now getting out of that food coma from Thanksgiving) we are in the middle of a sermon series in First Peter. In this letter, Peter is addressing Christians in Asia Minor now Turkey as Elect Exiles. They have become a people chosen by God to be radically different than everyone around them because they uniquely follow Jesus. What we ve seen, just to recap is that Jesus changes the way these people and by extension, us live with one another, engage in politics, take part in the work place, and how we deal with marriage. Today, we are going to look at how following Jesus impacts the way live and talk about him in the face of cultural opposition to that when they are hurting, like Galerius, they too can know that they can turn to Jesus for hope. That sounds weird, because of course following Jesus should mean we talk about Jesus is a very Christ- like way! But I think we can all agree that we don t (as Christians) always act lovingly toward our neighbors. And if you are a guest here, but not a Christian, then my guess is that your biggest beef with Christians is that we are hypocrites and don t always practice what we preach. And I ll grant you that. I m one of the biggest hypocrites I know. The Bible pushes back on that though and 1) give Christians a vision for a better way to defend or explain our faith 2) show how the fact that hypocrites like me can be come into this family is actually really good news for you too! But for those of us here who call ourselves, Christ- followers, Peter 1 Eusebius and Paul L. Maier, Eusebius- - the Church History: A New Translation with Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1999), 310-11 2
has something to say about how we mount a living defense of the hope we have in Christ. Loving Defense Let s start by looking at a loving defense, because if we aren t loving, we can t even talk about a living defense. Love has to be the foundation from which we start when we to talk about defending our hope and Peter starts by addressing how we love one another in the church as we practice loving those outside the church in verse 8: Finally, all of you, - you aren t the exception as much as we like to excuse ourselves from obedience to love have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. Let s break this passage down. Peter first addresses how live together at the church and that makes sense; Jesus tells us elsewhere that we will be known for our love for one another (John 13:35). So 5 things (Edmund Clowney in his commentary on 1 Peter called these 5 things fingers radiating out from a love of Jesus, his compassion, and his grace) 2 First Unity of Mind: That means we have a singular focus on glorifying Jesus. There is no room here for petty bickering or territorialism or preference demanding. There is room for one purpose and that is worshipping Jesus and helping others worship him. We re not going to get embroiled in arguments over worship style or the color of the carpet. We re going to worship Jesus in the way that s most helpful for others to enter in and love him. 2 Edmund P. Clowney, The Message of 1 Peter: The Way of the Cross, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England: Inter- Varsity Press, 1988), 137. 3
Second Sympathy: Peter is telling us we are to seek understanding. What causes others to feel pain? What do they hope for? What do they fear? Knowing that, what you have said might offend me, but if I m asking the right questions and seeking to know you and know your heart then I ll have an understanding of why you did or said that. I can enter into and understand your pain instead of running of and telling everyone, Did you hear what he said?! That s harder than it sounds; it means we have to be okay with an awkward conversation. We have rush toward each other rather than hiding from each other. It s interesting, we ve heard a lot lately about safe spaces in the news and on college campuses. And I think there is something good about desiring a safe space to heal, to hear the good news of the gospel and not be shamed or belittled. Now that desire can be twisted by our sin, so that we demand that people provide that safety instead of Christ providing that safety but what Peter is saying is that as Christ s people, we should be actively setting up a safe space for people to be ironically challenged, but shown the grace of Jesus. That s what we want our Community Groups to accomplish here at Redeemer. We them to be a safe place that you can walk into, bringing whatever baggage you ve got and we want them to a place that challenges you in your walk with Christ to confess your sin, to repent with one, because they ultimately point you to Jesus as your safety. And really, that s an attainable goal if we have brotherly. Brotherly Love for one another that really desires each other like a family, including others where we can and not intentionally excluding people. In ideal circumstances, unless someone is dangerous in which case boundaries are good, when the family gets together for Thanksgiving, you invite everyone you can to get 4
them together. Yeah, that includes the ones you re not as fond of. Brotherly love is a love that brings everyone in. Fourth, a Tender Heart means you don t let yourself feel jaded by past hurt. You share your emotions and you listen to others. says in Romans 12 that we weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. Someone without a tender hear is bitter when good things happen to or for others, but doesn t want anything to do with them when their hurting. That type of person might even gloat. And this one is kind of easy to coach in some Christian- ese and make seem righteous. We use the language of boundaries a lot. And boundaries can be a good and godly thing to set up if a relationship has turned abusive or overbearing, but what I see a lot of Christians do unfortunately, is because they ve been hurt by one person, they avoid the rest of the Christian community that they ve been called to. Finally, Humility. Everyone knows that guy who always has to be right. Or always on- ups everyone s story. He or she can t simply enjoy and another person s achievements or accept correction. Nobody likes spending time around that person; their behavior fractures community. Peter is, however calling us to radical humility, that get s out of the way and isn t as concerned about self. Tim Keller calls this self- forgetfulness and says, The thing we would remember from meeting a truly gospel- humble person is how much they seemed to be totally interested in us. Because the essence of gospel- humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less. 3 3 Timothy Keller, The Freedom of Self- Forgetfulness: The Path to True Christian Joy (Chorley, England: 10Publishing, 2012), 1. 5
Now Peter starts by how we deal other Christians, and it can be tempting to say, yeah, I can do all that with other believers, but I m not going to treat Non- Christians that way. But Peter doesn t let us off the hook with a seemingly easy charge to act lovingly toward other Christians. All of this loving each other is practice for loving those who hate us and Peter goes full bore in verse 9 and tells us Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing. Our love is not to be reserved for Christians. It is not to be reserved for Non- Christians that nice to us or is cool or fun to be around. It is meant for those who hate us most. Those who call us bigots because believe God s vision for sexuality is better than the worlds. Who call us terrorists because we believe human has value all the way down. Who are the most hateful toward us. Our first response should be one of love toward our enemies. But if we are honest, a lot of our talk about those who oppose Christians is...less than loving. We don't learn our tone from Scripture, from Jesus who is firm, yet inviting into a life that follows him. We too often learn our tone from political talk shows or hastily written internet articles where no one wins by loving their enemy into the fold, but instead by yelling the loudest and trying to shame their enemies into submission. We are way to easily suckered into sharing hateful, fallacious, articles on Facebook, without so much as a Snopes check, or thinking we can win the "good fight" by throwing out some pithy gotcha line. I don t know a person who was mad about the Red Starbucks cups, but the reality is, that we ve earned a reputation for overreacting such that media can construct a plausible fake story of outrage. And, look, I get it. I'm one of those people who just loves to be right 6
and I love a good argument. I think some Christians are like me and being right is a higher value for us that being loving. The late Edmund Clowney, a theologian and seminary professor, cautioned in his commentary on 1 Peter that "When the truth of Christ is affirmed in arrogance, it is denied." 2 We're like the Ephesian church in Revelation 2:1-7, we've got great doctrine but have forgotten our first love. That's not say we don t have conviction in our speech. Peter says we should always prepared to give an answer for the hope we have and I encourage you to even do some research on how you could give that answer. Read a good book on Apologetics, like Reason for God by Tim Keller or Expositional Apologetics by Voddie Baucham, or Covenental Apologetics by local K. Scott Oliphint or learn how you can answer the questions our culture is asking about God by becoming a student of culture. But you need to answer those questions from a heart of love. Some Christians lash out because of the world because their scared. We've forgotten Paul's command in Philippians 4:6 to not be anxious, but in everything by prayer and supplication let your request be made known to God. Peter himself tells us in verse 15 "Have no fear of them, nor be troubled. But we have a hard time trusting God. We have to try to be in control, by proving how smart we are or lashing out gives us more comfort, but we don't trust God enough to go to him in prayer and to go into the world in love. Whatever the reason you feel tempted to lash out in hatred toward those who oppose us, whether pride or fear, repent and stop repaying evil for evil, reviling for reviling, and bless that you may obtain a blessing. What bigger blessing could we ask for than to see those who mock us now meet Jesus and have their lives transformed? So let's ask ourselves, me, you, all of 7
us, "Do I trust God enough that I can be loving, that I can be a blessing, to those who revile me for the sake of the Gospel?" Living Defense But to mount a loving defense, we have to mount a living defense. Our words have to match our actions. Peter quotes Psalm 34 when he writes in, "Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from the evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it." It is better, he notes in verse 17 to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will than for doing evil, because, look, those who want to revile us, will continue to revile us. No matter how kind or loving we are, there will be some people for whom Christianity is totally unfathomable and they'll mock. They'll make fun. Let's not give any unnecessary ammunition, right? We don't get to complain that we're being mocked if we're being mocked for our own unrighteousness and sin. That's not persecution. Those are consequences. But by living a life of righteousness, we are able to engage the world we live by displaying the love God has given us. Gelarius, the Emperor I mentioned, wasn't calling for Christians to pray for him because they said nice things. Or even that they were executed; criminals died violently in the Roman world, but didn't get pity. He asked for Christians to pray for them, because they were the people in the Roman world, who ran to take care of the poor, the sick, the abandoned. They cared for their own too, taking care of the wounded and bloody, who survived the persecutions. Could that happen today? Could someone like a Christopher Hitchens or a Cecile Richards find themselves worshipping Jesus because they ve seen us work to serve this world? By God s grace, yes. 8
That's why Peter says, "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. What kind of blessing does suffering for righteousness' sake give? Well, it gives us the blessing of suffering for the Glory of Christ. It is it's own reward, much in the same that blessing those who revile us, its it's own reward, because it allows us to honor Christ with a clear conscience. Look, this is hard, right? It's hard to not answer reviling with reviling when we're called bigots. It's hard to choose sides in the War on Christmas. It's hard to live a totally righteous life that can't at some place not be mocked. You probably beat yourself up about stuff you've done. It's hard. In fact, I want to submit that this is impossible.. We cannot and do not live perfectly. We cannot and do not love perfectly. But, there is Someone who does love perfect and live perfectly. In Jesus we have a Loving, Living Defender. The picture Peter has painted for us is a picture of Jesus. How does he deal with his enemies? Does he revile? No, we saw in 1 Peter 2:23 that he did not revile those who reviled him. He blesses by dying on the cross and by pleading for forgiveness from his Father for those who are murdering him. Does he sin because he can? No, he lives a life of righteousness such that when he is accused of sin, it becomes clear that those who are accusing him are grasping at straws. Those enemies he has died for? They're us. Those who accuse him. Who would minimize who Jesus is? Us. The hypocrites who Jesus rescues from our hypocrisy, day by day? Us. And if you're not a Christ- follower, yet, that can be you. We're living proof, the people in the pews around you, that Jesus will take anybody 9
with any sort of past. None of us is squeaky clean. We ve all got baggage. But we ve a given hope that you can have too and I pray that the God would show you the truth of that hope. That he would give you the rest we have and that this place would be a place of love for you. So Redeemer, let's be a people that live in hope, knowing that Jesus is a living, loving defender who can and does change lives. And that the best defense, the best proof we have for that hope is a living, loving life that come from from our hope in Christ. 10
1. Which part of a "loving defense" is hardest for you? Unity of Mind? Sympathy? Brotherly Love? A Tender Heart? Or Humility? 2. How can you offer a "Living Defense"? What areas of unrighteousness can be repented of so that you can look more like Jesus? 3. What does it mean to have Jesus as your loving, living Defender? How has he approached you? 11