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All right. Are you ready to receive the word of God? Are you ready to live the word of God? Amen? Are you ready to say to God, God, it's your word. It's not my know-how, but it's your say-so that leads me and guides me. And today, I'm going to listen to your word of God. I'm going to obey it, and I'm going to live it out in Jesus' name. Amen? Amen. All right. Daryl, thank you, brother. Come on.

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Good morning, everyone. Our text this morning is found in 1 Peter chapter 3. And 1 Peter 3 verses 13 through 17. 1 Peter 3 verses 13 through 17. 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 is 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. Lord, we thank you for your word this morning. We thank you for this body, this day and this place, which we can gather and seek your face. God, we ask that you would uh make your word to abide in our hearts, in our lives, and we thank you also for the word Jesus, our Savior. In his name we pray. Amen. Well, here we are again talking about suffering. We're still talking about it because Peter's still talking about it. Which I hope lets you know that it's an important topic to cover. We've seen that it's God's will for the Christian to suffer. We've seen how we may suffer in submission to authorities. We've seen Christ's example for us in suffering. And so here again in our text, we're seeing more about suffering. But while the main topic hasn't changed much here lately, I hope that you aren't growing weary with it. Because in covering suffering, we're seeing it from different angles. Uh, and it is lending itself to a comprehensive view of an important issue. One of the things the Jews said about the scriptures, which I love, they they refer to the scriptures as a 70-sided uh jewel or gem. As you turn it, you're seeing the light refracting in different ways. That's certainly true of the Bible. I bet almost everyone here has had an experience where you're reading something you've read before, maybe many times you've read it before, but it hits you in a fresh way, or you pick up on something that you didn't see all those times that you had read it before. In the same way, the angle at which we're we're viewing suffering has been changing from week to week. Last week, Dan spoke about being a blessing in the midst of suffering. This week we're gonna look at the way that we deal with suffering and what that has to say about our witness to the world. With that said, I want to retread some old ground here and remind you of the context in which Peter is writing. We always want to keep context in view because it helps us ensure that we're interpreting the Bible correctly. The Apostle Peter wrote this letter to believers who were scattered in Asia Minor. They were, that's like Turkey area. They were experiencing hostility because of their faith in Jesus Christ. These Christians were living as strangers and pilgrims in a culture that neither understood nor welcomed their commitment to Christ. Okay, they didn't understand it. They didn't welcome it. That's true a lot in life, isn't it? People fear what they don't understand. Peter knew that persecution was not merely a possibility, it was a reality for many of them. It was a guarantee, frankly. And yet Peter doesn't write as a detached theologian. He writes as a man who personally knew what it meant to fail Christ, to be restored by Christ, and eventually to suffer for Christ. Having once denied the Lord around a fire, Peter now encourages believers to stand boldly for him in a hostile world. The passage before us addresses a question every generation of Christian must answer. How should believers respond when following Christ brings opposition, criticism, or suffering? Peter's answer can be summarized in three truths. One, suffering for righteousness is a blessing. Two, Christ must be sanctified in our hearts. And three, our witness must be marked by hope, humility, and holiness. So in speaking of, first of all, uh the blessing of suffering for righteousness, I'll reread our first two verses here. Verses 13 and 14 of chapter 3. 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. Peter begins with a rhetorical question. Who is there to harm you if you're zealous for what is good? It's really a practical observation. Generally speaking, people who do good are less likely to face trouble. Honest citizens, compassionate neighbors, faithful workers often earn respect. But Peter recognizes that there are exceptions. Sometimes people suffer precisely because they do what is right. I can speak to this, I've experienced both sides of this coin in my career. Generally, my bosses like me. Um there, I get some favor. Um I don't want to say too much here, but there if you notice, there's a definitely a cultural shift in work ethic for one thing. Um secondly, like I I tend to work harder than people who have been in the job a long time as well. Okay. I've had I've heard people, uh, I've had bosses say things like, you know, I wish I had more workers like you, that sort of thing. And I'm not saying this to boast. As a Christian, I approach work differently than the world does. Okay? The Bible says, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. It also says, whatever you do, do it as unto the Lord. So the Bible is informing my responsibilities at work. And my bosses wouldn't want to hear this, but I'm not working for them. I'm working for the Lord. On the other side of the coin, I've had experiences like one time I was asked to sign a paper saying that I had received a training that I had not received. Uh I was told that I would be getting the training soon. And I said, I will sign the paper when I receive the training. And so then I was, you know, criticized. Why do I have to make things so difficult? That sort of thing. And frankly, I was I was persecuted for doing the right thing there. Jesus himself warned, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. So what we learn here is that in many cases, doing the right thing avoids trouble. But in some cases, it brings it. That is not an argument against doing the right thing in certain situations. Okay? We're not supposed to try to figure out if it's gonna cause us trouble or not and act accordingly. It's just a plain description of what may happen to us. Our ultimate concern isn't what man may do to us, but rather how we are living in light of our faith in God. Consider Psalm 56.11, and there are other verses in the Psalms that echo this sentiment. But Psalm 56.11 says, In God I trust, I shall not be afraid, what can man do to me? In God I trust, I shall not be afraid, what can man do to me? The answer isn't nothing, by the way. Okay? Men can hurt us, they can persecute us. If you think of Paul, he endured tremendous persecution. He was ultimately martyred for his faith. But he said it true, to live is Christ and to die is gain. As a Christian, we should never assume that obedience guarantees comfort. Of course, our greatest example is Jesus Himself. No one ever lived more righteously than Christ, yet no one suffered more unjustly. He healed the sick, he raised the dead, he fed the hungry, and he preached the truth. But he was mocked, rejected, beaten, and crucified. Within a week, he had crowds go from shouting, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, to shouting, Crucify Him. The cross reminds us that righteousness does not always receive applause from the world. Peter says those who suffer for righteousness are happy or blessed. This echoes Christ's words in the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter 5, verse 10. Blessed are those, or happy are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The blessing is not found in pain itself. Christians do not seek suffering. Rather, the blessing comes from knowing that suffering for Christ places us in fellowship with him. Paul wrote in Philippians chapter 3 that I may know him and the fellowship of his sufferings. When believers suffer because they belong to Christ, they participate in a sacred fellowship with their Savior. Charles Spurgeon once said that the anvil of persecution has broken many hammers, but the church has remained unharmed. Throughout history, governments, philosophers, and critics have attempted to destroy Christianity over thousands of years. But the church remains. And the church remains because Christ remains. The believer can endure suffering knowing that God is sovereign over every circumstance. Because of that, and because righteous suffering is a blessing, we should not be afraid of it. Peter continues have no fear of them, nor be troubled. Fear is often the greatest weapon of persecution. Threat of rejection, threat of ridicule, of loss, physical harm. But Scripture repeatedly commands God's people not to fear. The presence of God is greater than the threats of man. That's in verse 15. In your heart's honor of Christ, the Lord is 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. In your heart's honor of Christ, the Lord is holy. This is the central command of the passage. To sanctify Christ means to set him apart as holy, as supreme, as sovereign in the deepest part of our being. The issue is not merely what we confess with our lips, but it's whom we enthrone in our hearts. Every heart has a throne. Something occupies the position of highest authority. For some people that's money. For some people it's success, power. For others, it's public approval. Some still are not as nefarious, but still as misguided. Could be a spouse, children. Peter says that Christ alone deserves that place. When Christ reigns in the heart, the fear loses its power. Because the fear of God surpasses the fear of man. Peter here is drawing from Isaiah chapter 8, verses 12 and 13. I'll read those really quick. Isaiah 8, 12 and 13. Do not call conspiracy all this people, all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. The remedy for fearing people is a greater vision of God. When Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 6 saw the Lord high and lifted up, the earthly fears that he had diminished in comparison to divine glory. What we're talking about here is the Lordship of Christ. These early Christians, they faced immense pressure to declare that Caesar was Lord. Caesar wanted everybody to say, Caesar is Lord. But instead, they boldly proclaimed, Jesus is Lord. Many of them paid for that confession, with imprisonment, with beatings, and death. But they understood that no earthly ruler could claim ultimate allegiance. That goes to God alone. John Calvin has a quote, it says, We shall never be prepared to bear the cross until God has such authority in our hearts that his will alone is sufficient for us. We shall never be prepared to bear the cross until God has such authority in our hearts that his will alone is sufficient for us. The ability to endure suffering begins long before persecution arrives. It begins in the daily surrender of our lives, of our hearts to Christ. A Christian who walks closely with Jesus during peaceful days will be better prepared during troubled days. And now we talk about our witness, which started at the end of that verse 15. Be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, but do it with gentleness and respect. The word translated defense here is the Greek word apologia. It's a legal term, it doesn't mean apology, but rather building a reasonable case. Peter is calling believers to be prepared to explain their faith. There's a whole Christian area of study called apologetics based on that word apologia. And I could honestly talk for a while about that. But it's about defending our faith intellectually. There's words that you often hear when you hear the word faith. Those words are leap of, okay, leap of faith is what people say. But biblical Christian faith is better described as an act of trust. In Hebrews, it's described as an assurance, as confidence. Jesus Christ demonstrated his authority and his divinity through signs and wonders during his earthly ministry. He died, he was raised and appeared to many. We don't believe in a fable. We believe in historical fact. So imagine someone says something like the Bible is just a book written by man. I'm gonna point to the harmony of Scripture, written over thousands of years by at least 40 authors. I'm gonna point to prophecies fulfilled. I'm gonna point to the reliability of the manuscripts, okay, the original manuscripts, among other things. Okay, that's apologetics. But notice what prompts the question. People observe hope in the believer. The Christian faces trials differently. They go through persecution differently. They experience grief differently. We confront uncertainty differently. When others see supernatural hope, they begin asking questions because they know that that's not how they respond to those circumstances. Christian hope is not optimism. It's not positive thinking, it's not a mantra or some affirmation, okay? It's confidence that is rooted in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's Christian hope. And earlier in 1 Peter in chapter 1, verse 3, he writes about, quote, a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So as we said, our hope rests upon historical reality. Christ died, Christ was buried, and he rose again. Because he lives, we have hope. If you think about Paul, this is, I'm not going to go to it, but in Acts chapter 25 and 26, Paul goes before King Agrippa, if you know the story. But Paul's imprisoned. He comes before King Agrippa and boldly proclaims the truth. He speaks very confidently of Christ, and the king observes and notices something pretty remarkable, that Paul has this hope in him, despite the fact that he's imprisoned, that he's in chains. The gospel transformed suffering into his opportunity for witness. C.S. Lewis wrote: Hope is one of the theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not a form of escapism, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. Hope enables believers to live faithfully in the present because we know that the future belongs to Christ. And we're told that our witness is supposed to be with gentleness and respect. The King James has that meekness and fear. The content of our witness matters. But so does the manner. Peter insists the truth must be communicated with humility. Meekness or gentleness is not weakness, it is strength under control. Jesus himself described himself as gentle and lowly, right? Matthew chapter 11. Gentle or meek and lowly. But he possessed all authority in heaven and on earth. Meekness or gentleness is strength governed by love. So we need to avoid any sort of harshness or arrogance. We know the truth, and the world doesn't. That can come with a, you know, knowledge can puff up. And some Christians know biblical truth, but they communicate it harshly. Others want to win arguments, and therefore they lose opportunities for ministry. The goal is not to prove people wrong, the goal is to point people to Christ. Paul instructed Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 2 the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men. In speaking earlier of apologetics, there's an apologist I like, his name is Greg Kochel. And he says, the gospel is offensive enough. Let's not add any offense to it. What does that mean, right? The gospel is the good news, but to make people understand they need the good news, we have to tell them the bad news. In calling men and women to repentance, we have to show them that they are sinners in need of a savior. That's the bad news. It's offensive to call someone a sinner, but that's our job. We have to do it gently, meekly, respectfully. What we're talking about here really is reverence. And it's not reverence to the people that we're witnessing to, it's reverence to God. Believers invite questions about their faith by living in hope. They then answer those questions while recognizing that they represent Christ. We're called in 2 Corinthians Christ's ambassadors, as though he were speaking or making an appeal through us. It doesn't say, as believers, you know, you can be an ambassador. We are. We are his ambassadors for good or for ill. Okay. Because of that, our witness should be thoughtful. It should be respectful, and it should be honoring to God. We have a great example in Jesus. When he was reviled, he did not retaliate. When he was falsely accused, he entrusted himself to the Father. We talked about that a few weeks ago. In Isaiah, his prophecy was fulfilled. It says he was oppressed, he was afflicted, but he didn't even open his mouth. The example of Christ teaches us that truth and gentleness go hand in hand. They belong together. That helps us, as Peter moves on here, in verse 16, that helps us maintain a good conscience. It says, having a good conscience so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. A clear conscience is a powerful testimony. Peter doesn't say that believers are going to avoid trouble, that they're going to avoid slander. In fact, here he's assuming that at some point they're going to be falsely accused. The question is whether those accusations are true. The world watches Christians closely. You all know that. I'm sure you've heard someone say, you know, Christians are all a bunch of hypocrites or something like that. There is a sense in which that's true. We call sin sin and yet continue to do it. But we don't seek to sin more so that grace may abound, as Paul wrote in Romans. Dan says frequently, this is true, I'm not who I want to be, but I'm also not who I was, right? We recognize that sanctification is a process. It's the process of being made holy. We're partners in that process. As we yield to the Spirit's work in our lives, as we read the Bible, we pray and we seek after God. And I know there have been seasons in my life when I have not been a good partner in that process. The world is watching, and we need to be aware of that. When our conduct matches our confession, criticism loses credibility. I'll say that again. When our conduct matches our confession, criticism loses credibility. Jesus said, Let your light so shine before men that they see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. That's in Matthew 5.16. A godly life reinforces a godly message. Daniel is a great example of this. His enemies desperately searched for fault in Daniel, couldn't find it. They concluded in Daniel chapter 6, we shall not find any ground for complaint against this Daniel. They had to try a different route by getting him to observe the law of God and find fault with him because he was doing that. The only accusation they could make was because he was faithful. When believers maintain integrity before God, they possess an inner peace that external criticism can't touch, can't destroy. As we read in verse 17, for it's better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. Not all suffering is the same, and we've been talking about that. Some people suffer because of sinful choices or other circumstances. Peter's not talking here about that kind of suffering. He's speaking about suffering that comes through faithful obedience. But if you notice, if you notice Peter's words here, he says, if that should be God's will, even suffering falls under God's sovereign control. Nothing reaches the believer apart from the Father's permission. This doesn't mean that God delights in our pain. It means that he can use suffering for his purposes. If you remember Joseph, who suffered betrayal, slavery, imprisonment, after all that, he said, What you thought was for evil against me, God meant for good, right? He saved all of Israel through Joseph being sent into slavery in Egypt because of the famine that happened. God often accomplishes his greatest work in us and through us through our greatest trials. As we know well, Romans 8.28 says, all things work together for good for those that love God. Not just some things, not just the pleasant things, all things. Even suffering is a tool in the hands of a wise and loving God. So, in conclusion, we should live courageously for Christ. Peter's message is as relevant today as it was when it was written in the first century. We live in a world that increasingly challenges biblical truth and conviction. The temptation is to compromise, to retreat, or to remain silent. Peter calls us to something greater. When suffering comes, do not fear. Sanctify Christ as Lord. Be ready to explain your hope. Speak with gentleness and reverence. Maintain a clear conscience. Trust God's sovereign purpose. The ultimate example is Jesus Christ, as we said. And this isn't our passage for today, but I do just want to read verse 18 of chapter 3 here. 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. Christ suffered not merely as our example, but as our Savior. Because he suffered, we're forgiven. Because he died, we can live. Because he rose, we have hope. Because he reigns, we don't need to fear. You may have heard this quote before. Jim Elliott, who was a martyr and a missionary, he famously said, he is no fool who gives what he can't keep to gain what he can never lose. May God grant us the courage to stand faithfully for Christ, the wisdom to speak graciously of Christ, and the confidence to trust him through every trial until the day we see him face to face.