SPEAKER_02: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: So we're in 1 Peter in chapter 3, beginning in verse 13, if you'd turn there with me.
SPEAKER_01: Peter's writing to several churches in modern-day Turkey all about what a Christian life should look like among unbelieving neighbors and country people.
SPEAKER_01: It's an excellent letter for us today when looking back on 2025, it feels like it's been pretty hard in many ways, right?
SPEAKER_01: We'll pick up here at the end of Peter's quotation of Psalm 34, which reminds us of God's all-seeing justice.
SPEAKER_01: In 1 Peter chapter 3, look at verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: Peter writes, For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer.
SPEAKER_01: But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
SPEAKER_01: Peter's quoting Psalm 34 in his own translation, which the ESV translates this way from the Hebrew.
SPEAKER_01: Peter picks up this Psalm to prove to us, to make the case that what he's just argued for is biblical.
SPEAKER_01: Namely, that Christians should persist in doing the right thing, even in an unrighteous social, political, even familial environment.
SPEAKER_01: But even especially amongst themselves.
SPEAKER_01: Peter says, Don't get even.
SPEAKER_01: And he grounds that in Psalm 34.
SPEAKER_01: The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
SPEAKER_01: Paul might have said it in a similar way when he says, The Lord has said, Vengeance is mine, and I will repay.
SPEAKER_01: They're both teaching us not to laugh to rebel when the world around us is evil.
SPEAKER_01: That's what not to do.
SPEAKER_01: Don't repay evil for evil.
SPEAKER_01: And it's marked by things like humility, honesty, self-control, and peace.
SPEAKER_01: All of that is you endure a dying world with living hope in verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: But our text for this morning picks up this thought that the Lord's eyes are on the righteous.
SPEAKER_01: And it shows us what we can do instead of just what we can't do.
SPEAKER_01: So Peter instructs us: don't fight back.
SPEAKER_01: Don't return reviling for reviling or evil for evil.
SPEAKER_01: But instead, verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 13 to 22, we'll take it in four sections this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Here they are.
SPEAKER_01: The reality, verses 13 and 14, the response Peter calls us to, the result of that response, in verses 16 and 17, and then finally the reason for the response.
SPEAKER_01: I think we can frame all of that around a single sentence.
SPEAKER_01: Because God is just, that's my reality, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because God is just, God's people should fearlessly and freely honor Jesus as our victorious example and Lord, even through suffering.
SPEAKER_01: Let's begin in verse 13 with the reality.
SPEAKER_01: Peter writes, Now who is there to harm you if you're zealous for what is good?
SPEAKER_01: But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: And he picks up that truth of verse 13, that the Lord hears the righteous, that the Lord is set against evildoers, and he asks the question, Who is there to harm you if you're zealous for what is good?
SPEAKER_01: It's a very biblical question, isn't it?
SPEAKER_01: We should ask it all the time.
SPEAKER_01: David taught Israel to sing, What can man do to me?
SPEAKER_01: At least three different Psalms.
SPEAKER_01: What do we really have to fear?
SPEAKER_01: What harm can really come to us?
SPEAKER_01: Who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?
SPEAKER_01: And the point, of course, is that any earthly harm we experience is ultimately harmless for the believer.
SPEAKER_01: Ultimately.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, if you're zealous for what is good, another way of saying righteous, right?
SPEAKER_01: If you're righteous, if you're passionate about doing the right thing, then the eyes of the Lord are upon you.
SPEAKER_01: And what, if any real harm, can come to those who are under the Lord's watchful care?
SPEAKER_01: The answer is quick, right?
SPEAKER_01: None.
SPEAKER_01: No harm can come.
SPEAKER_01: And that's true.
SPEAKER_01: That's part of what Peter means by his verse, by this verse.
SPEAKER_01: But I also think he's saying a little bit more.
SPEAKER_01: He's preparing us for what he says later in chapter 4, verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: I've got it up here for you.
SPEAKER_01: Peter says, But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer, or even as a meddler.
SPEAKER_01: Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.
SPEAKER_01: So I think what Peter's saying is, if you are zealous for what is good, who is there to harm you if you're zealous for what is good?
SPEAKER_01: He also means that the world will have less reason to harm you.
SPEAKER_01: Even the rulers of the Gentiles know how to punish murderers and thieves, right?
SPEAKER_01: Interesting how Peter tells the churches not to be meddlers in the same breath.
SPEAKER_01: It could be, it could be a subtle nudge from the apostle that the the maybe part of the reason the churches he's writing to were experiencing such opposition and suffering was that they were being a little too nosy or a little too quick to comment.
SPEAKER_01: There may have been suffering, at least partly, not just for righteousness' sake, but also as busybodies.
SPEAKER_01: We can't be certain.
SPEAKER_01: But I think those verses shed some more light on our text for this morning.
SPEAKER_01: If you're zealous for what is good, you'll likely suffer less.
SPEAKER_01: You'll likely suffer less.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's just true that sometimes Christians suffer as the consequences of our sin, right?
SPEAKER_01: So he's making that point as well.
SPEAKER_01: But not always.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we suffer for righteousness' sake.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Peter says next.
SPEAKER_01: He isn't uncaring about their suffering.
SPEAKER_01: The point of this verse is not just to toughen up and get through it, right?
SPEAKER_01: His letter makes it clear that he knows what they're going through.
SPEAKER_01: He alludes to suffering of various kinds, things like false accusations and ignorant talk, evil and insult, threats, malicious talk, all of those things are in Peter's letter.
SPEAKER_01: There is real opposition and real suffering.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter doesn't say that's nothing.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing.
SPEAKER_01: No, he writes that it's blessing.
SPEAKER_01: When you suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: Even if they accuse you of evil when you've done nothing wrong, even when they threaten you with punishment for refusing to join in sinful patterns or behaviors, even when they talk about you behind your back for being stuck up, or worse, just boring.
SPEAKER_01: Peter says, even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, and surely Peter has more in mind than just being thought of as boring, right?
SPEAKER_01: But even if you should suffer, you'll be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter didn't come up with that line on his own, did he?
SPEAKER_01: We've heard that before.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus taught much the same thing in the Beatitudes.
SPEAKER_01: In Matthew chapter 5, Blessed are you when others revile you.
SPEAKER_01: All throughout his ministry, Jesus said stuff like this.
SPEAKER_01: In Matthew 10, he says, Don't fear those who can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.
SPEAKER_01: Rather, fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
SPEAKER_01: Very famous verse.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need to be afraid of those who are against you.
SPEAKER_01: But we shouldn't forget what comes right after Matthew 10, 28.
SPEAKER_01: He then says, Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?
SPEAKER_01: And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father.
SPEAKER_01: So fear not, therefore, for you are more valuable than many sparrows.
SPEAKER_01: The eyes of the Lord are surely upon the righteous.
SPEAKER_01: And even if we suffer, we'll be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: But do you see how how Peter's teaching, though?
SPEAKER_01: It's an example to all of us.
SPEAKER_01: He goes from Psalm 34 in the Old Testament, then he goes to the teaching of Jesus to comfort his readers about the reality of God's justice.
SPEAKER_01: It all fits together.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that?
SPEAKER_01: I think that's incredible.
SPEAKER_01: It's just incredible.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter is teaching us that God sees, his eyes are upon you.
SPEAKER_01: He sees any suffering you endure.
SPEAKER_01: And he's just.
SPEAKER_01: And he won't let any sin go unpunished.
SPEAKER_01: All of it.
SPEAKER_01: All of it will be dealt with either on the cross of Christ or in the fires of hell, right?
SPEAKER_01: And that's good news.
SPEAKER_01: That means the reality of God's justice means that none of your suffering is a waste of time.
SPEAKER_01: None of it's pointless.
SPEAKER_01: All of it, all of it, will serve the glory of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: How different?
SPEAKER_01: How different would our lives be if we could start to see our suffering in the light of God's glory and Christ's suffering more?
SPEAKER_01: Grumbling, poof, complaining just disappears, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Can we hold fast to the reality of God's justice when we're afraid to share the gospel?
SPEAKER_01: Can we remember that God's eyes are upon us when we're tempted to join in on sinful choices?
SPEAKER_01: Or better yet, since the new year is almost here.
SPEAKER_01: What about when that alarm goes off a little bit earlier and it's time to read your Bible?
SPEAKER_01: It's a small thing.
SPEAKER_01: But at least for me it feels like suffering sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: Can we see even that tiny bit of suffering in the light of the glory of God?
SPEAKER_01: It changes everything, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's the reality.
SPEAKER_01: The reality is that the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
SPEAKER_01: And if you suffer for righteousness' sake, you'll be blessed.
SPEAKER_01: For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous.
SPEAKER_01: And because that reality is true, because that's true according to both the Old Testament and the teaching of Christ, that the Lord's justice will be satisfied no matter what, then this is the response Peter calls us to.
SPEAKER_01: The intended application of the reality is in verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: Have no fear of them, nor be troubled.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience.
SPEAKER_01: Because verse 12 and 13 are true, and a little bit of verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: Because all of that is true, Peter tells his readers to have no fear of them, nor be troubled.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter's again, again, remembering the teaching of Jesus here.
SPEAKER_01: It's incredible.
SPEAKER_01: He's imitating Jesus so closely, following right in his footsteps.
SPEAKER_01: On the ninth that Jesus was betrayed.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, it's late that Thursday night, maybe even after midnight on Good Friday.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus took the disciples on a walk, he taught them many things about the days ahead, knowing that their greatest hour of suffering was coming to them, even as his greatest hour of suffering was coming to him.
SPEAKER_01: Judas is on his way with a band of soldiers to haul them off.
SPEAKER_01: Having already foretold all of Peter's denials, Jesus says this in John 14.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Peace I live with you, my peace I give to you.
SPEAKER_01: Not as the world gives, do I give to you.
SPEAKER_01: Let not your hearts be troubled.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see that?
SPEAKER_01: Look back and forth from your Bibles to the screen.
SPEAKER_01: Peter says in the second half of verse 14, have no fear nor be troubled.
SPEAKER_01: That word for troubled is pretty rare in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: You don't see it very often.
SPEAKER_01: Just when you're reading, the word troubled doesn't come up.
SPEAKER_01: And it means disturbed or unsettled or nervous, even trembling with anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus used the word to describe himself, even when he knew it was time to die.
SPEAKER_01: And so I think that Peter clearly has Jesus' betrayal and arrest in his mind.
SPEAKER_01: And all the things of that night.
SPEAKER_01: And so, with that context, here in 1 Peter, he's saying to his readers something like Even if they haul your friends off to prison, beat them, slap them, spit on them, flog them, mock them, or even crucify them.
SPEAKER_01: Even then, Peter is saying, Don't do what I did.
SPEAKER_01: Don't do what I did when I denied my Lord three times.
SPEAKER_01: No, listen to the encouragement Jesus gave me that I'm now giving to you.
SPEAKER_01: Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: Don't lie to protect your own skin.
SPEAKER_01: Don't pretend you're not a Christian to avoid the pain or the inconvenience.
SPEAKER_01: Don't do that.
SPEAKER_01: But instead, instead in your hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Honor Christ the Lord as holy.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: Or rather, we could say, sanctify, make holy Christ the Lord in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: And that, right there, that is the main command of this section.
SPEAKER_01: That's the main takeaway.
SPEAKER_01: That's the application.
SPEAKER_01: That's the point.
SPEAKER_01: Underline that.
SPEAKER_01: Honor Christ the Lord as holy.
SPEAKER_01: That's what you're supposed to do.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we're supposed to do when we're under pressure.
SPEAKER_01: From wherever.
SPEAKER_01: In your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Remember.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is holy.
SPEAKER_01: Heaven be set apart.
SPEAKER_01: Sing even as you pray.
SPEAKER_01: Say things like, Who else commands all the hosts of heaven?
SPEAKER_01: Who else can make every king bow down?
SPEAKER_01: Who else can whisper and darkness trembles?
SPEAKER_01: Only a holy God, right?
SPEAKER_01: Burn, if we burn those words in our heart, it changes how you see everything.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the difference.
SPEAKER_01: I'm convinced.
SPEAKER_01: That's the difference, guys, between believers and unbelievers.
SPEAKER_01: There's a whole gospel sermon just in that little phrase.
SPEAKER_01: Do you believe that Jesus Christ is holy?
SPEAKER_01: Does your heart honor him as such?
SPEAKER_01: Can you say with honesty that Jesus is right about your sin?
SPEAKER_01: He was right in his entire life.
SPEAKER_01: He lived perfectly.
SPEAKER_01: That his life was the holy life.
SPEAKER_01: And not mine, and not yours.
SPEAKER_01: Believing that.
SPEAKER_01: And all those other glorious ways to put it, that's the essence of repenting and believing.
SPEAKER_01: You have not come to saving faith in Jesus Christ unless you're willing to admit and confess and believe that he was right about everything.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you don't get it yet, and that's okay.
SPEAKER_01: But he was right about everything.
SPEAKER_01: And he was, guys, he was.
SPEAKER_01: The most learned men in Israel looked like chumps when Jesus started to teach.
SPEAKER_01: The demons trembled before his power.
SPEAKER_01: The wind and the waves obeyed him, and dead Lazarus heard the command of the Holy One of Israel, and he rose because this Jesus, the baby born in Bethlehem, was the Almighty God who spoke, and the mountains sprang forth.
SPEAKER_01: This Christ is the Messiah, the eternal, unchanging God of the universe.
SPEAKER_01: There's no one like him in power, in righteousness, in kindness, or in wrath.
SPEAKER_01: He's perfect.
SPEAKER_01: Perfect in all of his ways.
SPEAKER_01: In all of his ways.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ is Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Honor Christ the Lord as holy, the Holy One.
SPEAKER_01: From everlasting days.
SPEAKER_01: He's always been like that.
SPEAKER_01: And he always will be like that.
SPEAKER_01: So let's get ahead of ourselves a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 18 down in your Bibles.
SPEAKER_01: It says that Christ also suffered once for sins.
SPEAKER_01: The righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.
SPEAKER_01: Bring us, us to God.
SPEAKER_01: Peter just called you unrighteous.
SPEAKER_01: Even as he called himself unrighteous, that he might the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.
SPEAKER_01: Because, guys, we have no hope that the Lord will ever set his eyes upon us and watch over us.
SPEAKER_01: Because of our sin, his face is set against us in our evil deeds.
SPEAKER_01: And if the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, then why should he ever look at you and me?
SPEAKER_01: Why should he ever hear our prayers?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: We're not righteous on our own.
SPEAKER_01: Our only hope, our only hope is the living hope.
SPEAKER_01: Back from 1 Peter chapter 1, the living hope in the resurrected Jesus, who was born in Bethlehem to live a perfectly holy life, to die a perfectly holy death, to suffer, to suffer righteously in your place for all of your sins of failed endurance, that you and I might receive the righteousness of God by grace through faith, not our own doing, but the gift of God.
SPEAKER_01: All of that, all of that, was in his heart and held clearly in his eternally a perfect and fully divine mind, as his mother wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger.
SPEAKER_01: Merry Christmas.
SPEAKER_01: So set your hope fully on the incarnate Messiah King, who by his life begun in Bethlehem, earned a righteousness not your own, that he might give it to you by grace.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing.
SPEAKER_01: No matter how good, beautiful, or true it is, nothing should sit on the highest and holiest place in your heart but Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The phrase we all love to quote from this passage, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you.
SPEAKER_01: That little phrase, I hope I've already made clear, that little phrase is not the main point of this text.
SPEAKER_01: It's not.
SPEAKER_01: It sits in a secondary position to the command of verse 15.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, always being prepared describes what happens when Christ is honored as holy in your hearts.
SPEAKER_01: This verse does not describe how to honor him as holy in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot put Jesus in the place of highest honor by memorizing arguments for his existence.
SPEAKER_01: You can't do it.
SPEAKER_01: Prove he is God all you want to.
SPEAKER_01: But if you don't love him above all else, then our apologetics books are just noisy gongs and clanging symbols.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: The point that Peter's making is that when you love Jesus, when he has the highest place in your heart, then you're ready.
SPEAKER_01: You're ready to confess him, and you're ready to confess Jesus to anybody.
SPEAKER_01: It's like how married men and married women wear wedding bands as a sign of the covenant they've made before Holy God.
SPEAKER_01: When a man takes off his wedding ring, that means something, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Now, he might be preparing for some manual labor, he doesn't want his hand to get pinched off or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: But what if he takes off his wedding ring as he goes into a restaurant all by himself?
SPEAKER_01: That says something, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: That's the picture.
SPEAKER_01: And the man who wears a wedding band is always prepared to tell somebody that he's a married man.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he's calling you to do as a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: A Christian who honors Christ the Lord as holy is always ready to make the good confession of their hope.
SPEAKER_01: And Christians.
SPEAKER_01: Do so in a way that makes sense with Christ's holiness.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is gentle and lowly of heart.
SPEAKER_01: And so when you give a reason for the hope within you, do it with gentleness.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be snarky.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be rude.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be vindictive.
SPEAKER_01: We shouldn't say things like, Well, I'm a Christian, so I would never.
SPEAKER_01: That's not that's often Pharisee talk, not Jesus talk, right?
SPEAKER_01: Do it with gentleness.
SPEAKER_01: And with fear.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know fully why the ESB translates that word as respect.
SPEAKER_01: The Greek text is clearly fear or phobos.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter is purposefully, I think, using the same word again that he used earlier in verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: Have no fear of them, but honor Christ, ready to give a defense with fear.
SPEAKER_01: The CSB and the New Americans say reverence.
SPEAKER_01: The LSB says fear.
SPEAKER_01: My guess, though, is that when translators do that, they don't want you to think that Peter is contradicting himself.
SPEAKER_01: Because that'd be weird.
SPEAKER_01: Peter says, have no fear, but do it with fear.
SPEAKER_00: How's that?
SPEAKER_00: How's that how's that work?
SPEAKER_01: But what what they're obscuring, though, is that Peter isn't talking about fearing the unbeliever or respecting the unbeliever.
SPEAKER_01: Peter's talking about fearing the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And so do you sense the perfect unity Peter strikes here?
SPEAKER_01: You have to do it with gentleness, in the fear of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It's like speaking the truth and love, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's this perfect unity.
SPEAKER_01: You can't soft-sell sin in the fear of the Lord, can you?
SPEAKER_01: You also can't browbeat somebody with hellfire and brimstone with gentleness.
SPEAKER_01: Just see the perfect unity it strikes.
SPEAKER_01: We'll never get it perfectly right.
SPEAKER_01: But Peter also, that's why he calls us to do it with a good conscience in these matters.
SPEAKER_01: Both in our righteous behavior.
SPEAKER_01: We should have a good conscience.
SPEAKER_01: Don't harbor secret sins, put them away.
SPEAKER_01: We should have a good conscience, a conscience in our righteousness, in our righteous honoring of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Have a good conscience in that Jesus Christ is the first place.
SPEAKER_01: You should have a good conscience in the righteousness of the defense of your hope.
SPEAKER_01: Speak truly so that you're not worrying about it.
SPEAKER_01: Speak boldly and gently.
SPEAKER_01: And when, not if, we mess those things up.
SPEAKER_01: Come to Christ for forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: And that's how you have a good conscience.
SPEAKER_01: That, all of that, is the proper response to the reality of God's perfect justice.
SPEAKER_01: Peter says in verse 16, so that, well, there's my outline again, so that the result, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
SPEAKER_01: For it's better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil.
SPEAKER_01: The point that Peter is making here is that good behavior, marked by a good conscience, gentleness and the fear of the Lord, all of that is the best defense we could have against slander.
SPEAKER_01: And that's the first result of the righteous response he's calling us to.
SPEAKER_01: If you're going to be persecuted, and all who desire to live godly lives in Christ will be, won't they?
SPEAKER_01: If you're going to be persecuted, make sure it's for doing the right thing, not for doing something evil, like we already saw in chapter 4 a little bit ago.
SPEAKER_01: And that's worth saying.
SPEAKER_01: Peter needs to say that because Christians have done evil things for as long as there have been Christians.
SPEAKER_01: It was Peter, after all, who chopped off an ear in the Garden of Gethsemane, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's from like the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter tells you it's better to suffer for doing good than to suffer for doing evil.
SPEAKER_01: He surely suffered when he realized he denied his Lord a third time, didn't he?
SPEAKER_01: If we respond to the reality of God's justice with righteousness, though, Peter says the result is that you may put to shame those who revile you, that we might humble those who persecute us.
SPEAKER_01: Surely, when Jesus prayed, Father, forgive them, they know not what they do, he had an impact on at least one Roman centurion.
SPEAKER_01: That's where Peter goes next.
SPEAKER_01: He takes us then to Christ's example.
SPEAKER_01: Christ's example of selfless gentleness for another's sake, even in the face of suffering.
SPEAKER_01: And that's one of my three reasons for you.
SPEAKER_01: One of the three reasons Peter gives us to motivate the response of fearlessly and freely honoring Christ as Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It's this.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus left you an example.
SPEAKER_01: For Christ also suffered.
SPEAKER_01: For Christ also suffered once because once for sins.
SPEAKER_01: Did he suffer because of his own sin?
SPEAKER_01: Of course not.
SPEAKER_01: So do you see how clear the parallel is?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus suffered for your sins.
SPEAKER_01: So we ought to be ready to do the same when people sin against us out of respect for his sacrifice on your behalf.
SPEAKER_01: Let them slander you.
SPEAKER_01: Let them slander you if they hear the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Let them throw us in prison.
SPEAKER_01: We can bear it.
SPEAKER_01: All so that they hear the gospel in gentleness.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus suffered in verse 18 that he might bring us to God.
SPEAKER_01: And so because we love Jesus, who died so that we could be saved, we should endure persecution righteously so that others might hear of his love.
SPEAKER_01: And we don't just do it out of love for them.
SPEAKER_01: But even more so, we suffer as we bring the gospel to people.
SPEAKER_01: Because we love Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: He died for you.
SPEAKER_01: He suffered in order to bring you to God.
SPEAKER_01: And you and I ought to be ready to die as Jesus does the same for others.
SPEAKER_01: So that's my first reason.
SPEAKER_01: Suffer fearlessly and freely because Jesus did so first.
SPEAKER_01: But now this passage gets crazy.
SPEAKER_01: Martin Luther called it the strangest passage in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_01: Obscure and very dark.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure what it means, I think, is the exact quote.
SPEAKER_01: And if old Martin wasn't sure what Peter meant, we should be careful, right?
SPEAKER_01: But here is my best explanation of verse second half of 18 on through.
SPEAKER_01: What does it mean that Jesus was made alive in the Spirit, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit?
SPEAKER_01: I think that's a reference to Jesus' resurrection unto a glorified spiritual state.
SPEAKER_01: So right now, on this side of the empty tomb, Jesus has a perfected human body already glorified because he already conquered this life, and now he lives unto eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: Resurrection life is his made alive in the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So I think a capital S is even appropriate there.
SPEAKER_01: And then that same spirit of resurrection glory, Jesus went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, to the imprisoned spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And now I don't think, I don't think we're required by this text to argue that he entered their prison necessarily.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe he did.
SPEAKER_01: But I don't think we have to say that.
SPEAKER_01: The text is very clear that he proclaimed something where they could hear it.
SPEAKER_01: That we have to hold.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Today, we can get a message into a prison in lots of different ways without ever entering one.
SPEAKER_01: Television, the internet, they make all that possible, right?
SPEAKER_01: Who's to say what the spiritual realm could do?
SPEAKER_01: He may have, but I don't think we're required to say that he did.
SPEAKER_01: But something about being raised in the spirit was heard everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 19 might make more sense if we translate it this way.
SPEAKER_01: In the spirit, going out, he proclaimed to the imprisoned spirits.
SPEAKER_01: It's a really literal translation I've given you there.
SPEAKER_01: He went in the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the in which of verse 19 refers to.
SPEAKER_01: Being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: In the spirit, going out, he proclaimed to the imprisoned spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm tempted to argue that it was by his resurrection, by being made alive by the Holy Spirit, by going out from the grave, that Jesus proclaimed forever to the imprisoned spirits.
SPEAKER_01: Something.
SPEAKER_01: That word proclaimed almost always describes preaching or heralding, announcing or making something known.
SPEAKER_01: So that's the picture as I understand it.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, by his resurrection from the grave in the Holy Spirit, announced over all the earth something.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we've got to figure out.
SPEAKER_01: Two questions.
SPEAKER_01: What did he proclaim?
SPEAKER_01: And who are these imprisoned spirits?
SPEAKER_01: And I think we'll start to see what this text is doing, what Peter's trying to show you.
SPEAKER_01: Peter's vague about what the proclamation entailed and who the spirits were.
SPEAKER_01: So we have to be careful.
SPEAKER_01: But I think two things help us.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 22.
SPEAKER_01: First, Jesus has gone into heaven at the Father's right hand, and angels' authorities and powers have been subjected to him.
SPEAKER_01: I think that makes sense as part of what this resurrection declares.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is Lord of all, and when he rose victorious from the grave, he made known to all men, all angels, all demons, that he had no fear of death, or rather that death has no power before him.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus' proclamation of the resurrection, then, might simply be Jesus wins.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus wins.
SPEAKER_01: I win.
SPEAKER_01: Victory, right?
SPEAKER_01: The second way to understand all that's going on here is to figure out who these imprisoned spirits are.
SPEAKER_01: So if you look at verse 20, Peter's describing those spirits who disobeyed God in Genesis chapter 6, in the days of Noah, when Noah built an ark.
SPEAKER_01: And in Genesis 6, Moses tells us that before the flood, the sons of God, my best guess is those are probably angels, even fallen demonic angels, married human women and had babies.
SPEAKER_01: Something about that event led to great wickedness over all the earth so much that the Lord regretted making mankind in the first place.
SPEAKER_01: He was grieved to his heart, he decided to wipe them out with a flood, but Noah found favor in the eyes of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's the event that Peter is referencing here.
SPEAKER_01: Many people think that what Peter is teaching us is that demonic forces, those forces that taught men wickedness in the days of Noah, were imprisoned in the days of the flood for trying to destroy mankind by luring them into provoking God's wrath.
SPEAKER_01: That was Satan's whole agenda all along, right?
SPEAKER_01: Get them to eat the apple, God destroys them.
SPEAKER_01: Yea, something like that.
SPEAKER_01: But God saved Noah's family.
SPEAKER_01: Those eight souls, those eight persons of verse 20, and they were brought safely through the water.
SPEAKER_01: And so then I think Jesus' resurrection is proclaiming his victory over Satan and evil and sin and death.
SPEAKER_01: And he proclaims by his resurrection his salvation of humanity, his salvation of you, his redemption of men and women over and against Satan's attempted destruction that started in the Garden of Eden, continued in the days of Noah, and Peter later says rages still today.
SPEAKER_01: And so no matter how many Satan leads the destruction through sin, Jesus will preserve God's image in mankind.
SPEAKER_01: He wins.
SPEAKER_01: And not even the consequences of the curse, of the fall, not even the wages of sin can thwart God's purposes to create, to love, and to redeem a people for his own glory.
SPEAKER_01: So that's my second reason.
SPEAKER_01: Not to fear, but to honor Christ as holy and ready to give a defensive asked.
SPEAKER_01: We should do that.
SPEAKER_01: We should honor Christ because Jesus wins.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus wins.
SPEAKER_01: David teaches us this saying, the Lord is on my side.
SPEAKER_01: I will not fear.
SPEAKER_01: What can man do to me?
SPEAKER_01: One more reason.
SPEAKER_01: Peter says, baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you.
SPEAKER_01: Not as removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That feels like a wild sentence, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Did Peter just say that baptism saves us?
SPEAKER_01: As though being dunked in the water is what saves you.
SPEAKER_01: That'd be crazy and it'd make a mess of our whole theology of salvation by grace alone, faith alone, and Christ alone.
SPEAKER_01: If that's what Peter means, if Peter means that baptism is what saves, we'd have to say that salvation is by grace and baptism alone.
SPEAKER_01: Faith and baptism.
SPEAKER_01: And Christ and baptism.
SPEAKER_01: It's not right.
SPEAKER_01: And so at least for that reason, I don't think that's what Peter means.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I do think he means by that sentence.
SPEAKER_01: When it says corresponds to this, I think that applies to the whole of the Noah story, not just the water at the end of verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: It's the whole story, not just the waters.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm inclined to soften the ESV translation a little bit so that baptism becomes the corresponding part by translating it this way.
SPEAKER_01: I think it clarifies it.
SPEAKER_01: Baptism corresponds to this, and you are saved.
SPEAKER_01: I hope that makes it clearer for you.
SPEAKER_01: It helps me.
SPEAKER_01: It helps it make it clear that it is the faith which is expressed by baptism.
SPEAKER_01: Not baptism, but the faith that becomes the instrument of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the water that removes dirt.
SPEAKER_01: And faith saves not by the power of its confession or the strength of its faith.
SPEAKER_01: Faith saves through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And so Peter is making a really pointed statement, I think, that religious activity like baptism or prayer or lighting candles or giving or whatever, that's not what saves.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what saves.
SPEAKER_01: It never has been.
SPEAKER_01: For the water of baptism that washes away dirt isn't the thing that saves you and I any more than it was the building of an ark that saved Noah.
SPEAKER_01: Rather, it was that Noah found favor in God's sight.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And so Peter is saying that it's not really the strength or the purity or the power of our appeal to God for a good conscience, of our belief, the faith, the prayer, the crying out is not what saves.
SPEAKER_01: Because it is the resurrection that saves.
SPEAKER_01: Through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That matters so much, that little word through.
SPEAKER_01: And so a commentator put these in a table for us, and I think it's really helpful.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's really helpful.
SPEAKER_01: In the flood story, a few were saved through the water.
SPEAKER_01: And you, baptism now saves through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Those throughs are huge.
SPEAKER_01: Because that is what baptism is really all about.
SPEAKER_01: It's about Jesus, not the water, right?
SPEAKER_01: Baptism is a picture when we perform it, that you've been spiritually immersed, dunked into Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We've been swallowed up into him, and where he goes, we go.
SPEAKER_01: That's what saving faith does.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit hides your life in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You put on his righteousness and become part of his body, and after that spiritual immersion into Christ, water baptism testifies to it.
SPEAKER_01: Because when you're in Christ, you're ready to make a defense to anyone who asks you.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: That's what baptism is.
SPEAKER_01: And so then water baptism becomes like a married man's wedding ring.
SPEAKER_01: Declaring to any who ask that you belong to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It's just that free and fearless thing.
SPEAKER_01: We should fearlessly and reverently honor Jesus as Lord in our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Because we belong to Him.
SPEAKER_01: We belong to Him.
SPEAKER_01: That's the third reason to have the proper response.
SPEAKER_01: You belong to Jesus by being immersed into Him through baptism.
SPEAKER_01: So then here's the whole picture of this text.
SPEAKER_01: The reality is that the Lord is just.
SPEAKER_01: That's the reality.
SPEAKER_01: And so the response to that reality that Peter teaches us to have is that we should have no fear of suffering or persecution or be troubled.
SPEAKER_01: Just like Jesus taught Peter.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, the response should be that we honor Christ as holy, being ready to give a gentle and reverent defense with a good conscience.
SPEAKER_01: With the result that if we're slandered or reviled, we can honestly say, like Jesus did, for which good deed are you putting me on trial today?
SPEAKER_01: That's the result.
SPEAKER_01: And finally, three reasons for that response.
SPEAKER_01: First, is because Jesus did so first.
SPEAKER_01: He left us this example that we should suffer as he did, and his suffering was your salvation.
SPEAKER_01: And second, because even when Jesus suffered, even when he endured through crucifixion, he or life on earth as a baby, that was hard to.
SPEAKER_01: Even when he suffered in that way, he conquered death and he proclaimed to the spiritual realms that he wins.
SPEAKER_01: So we should honor him in our hearts as holy.
SPEAKER_01: And besides all of that, your spiritual baptism into Christ by faith means you belong to the Jesus who wins.
SPEAKER_01: So you have nothing to do.
SPEAKER_01: You have nothing to fear.
SPEAKER_01: For fear in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: What have you to fear?
SPEAKER_01: If God is for you, who can be against you?
SPEAKER_01: And so then, whenever we suffer or are tested, God is giving us an opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: An opportunity, even if it's just when that alarm clock goes off a little bit earlier next week.
SPEAKER_01: It's an opportunity to remember the reality of God's justice.
SPEAKER_01: And look to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Love Him, adore Him, honor Him as Lord of all.
SPEAKER_01: Let your heart be filled with all the fullness of God.
SPEAKER_01: And that will spill out in good deeds, a ready defense, and freely spoken faith.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Father, we give you praise and we give you thanks.
SPEAKER_01: That Jesus Christ is Lord of all.
SPEAKER_01: That he receives all the glory and sits in the highest place in the heavens at your right hand even now.
SPEAKER_01: And though we have seen him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, we know, we know that from the moment of his birth he has conquered Satan and evil and sin, and in our place lived a perfect and holy and righteous life.
SPEAKER_01: And that you have declared his victory by his resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: So that all would know everywhere that Jesus Christ is Lord and you have exalted him.
SPEAKER_01: And so help us, Father, even now, to bend our knees and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, even as we await the day when all of his enemies will be made footstools for his feet.
SPEAKER_01: Until that time, Father, we know that we will suffer.
SPEAKER_01: We know that this world is broken still.
SPEAKER_01: And we know that our flesh is even still so weak.
SPEAKER_01: And so we pray for your grace and your mercy that things would go well with us, that she would deal with us gently, and that when we stumble in various ways, you would restore us in a spirit of gentleness.
SPEAKER_01: For we know that Jesus Christ is our good shepherd.
SPEAKER_01: And so help us to follow where he hath trod, knowing that he went first through suffering and death, and that if we are his disciples, we should expect the same as well.
SPEAKER_01: But though we though we live in a fallen world, though we live in a fallen world, we know that he can make all things right.
SPEAKER_01: And so we long, Father, for the justice you promised, that all things would be made new.
SPEAKER_01: Come again, even as you came once before, Lord Jesus, and restore all things to yourself and reign upon the earth, that all of our suffering would be worth it.
SPEAKER_01: We ask that you would come soon, so that you would get all the glory you deserve, and that every heart would honor you as holy in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.
SPEAKER_01: And we come we pray all of these things in your name, for Jesus Christ is Lord.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_02: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.