Representatives of Gospel Hope | 1 Peter 3:13-17
Peter presents four ways for Christians to represent the hope of the gospel: (1) expect blessing; (2) exalt Christ; (3) explain hope; and (4) exhibit goodness. This sermon is part 6 of "A Fisherman's Passion," Bryan Craddock's series on 1 Peter 2:11-5:14.
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I have devoted my life to persuading people to believe in Jesus for salvation and to accept the Bible as the true and perfect Word of God. So, it might surprise you to learn that my natural inclination is to be skeptical. Even as a child, I thought that way, and nothing brings out that tendency in me more than hearing fantastic claims from a salesman or a politician or even a preacher. The harder they push, the more suspicious I become. I look for inconsistent reasoning, distortions, exaggerations, outright deceptions, and hypocrisy. So, it never ceases to amaze me that God broke through my skepticism to lead me to saving faith.
A lot of people outside of Christianity have a similar skepticism. They won’t be persuaded by moral or theological compromise, emotional hype, or pious condescension. When Christians relate to the world in those ways, we become easy targets for mockery and even hatred. Instead, the lost world needs to hear the truth of the gospel and to see its transforming power displayed in the lives of sincere, humble believers.
Now we have seen that in his first New Testament letter, the Apostle Peter teaches that proclaiming the gospel is a cause worth suffering for. Jesus called him to be a fisher of men, and Peter wants every Christian to share that passion. As we face opposition to our faith, there is a strong temptation to become defiant and argumentative. But that response undermines our message. So, at the end of chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter 3, Peter stresses the importance of respect and submission to authority figures, even when they are unjust.
Peter wants us to understand that the gospel is a message of hope and that our demeanor should reflect that. He makes this emphasis clear at the beginning of his letter, and he returns to it in a more practical way in the middle of it. In verses 13-17 of chapter 3, he presents four ways for Christians to represent the hope of the gospel. So, as we walk through these verses, take this opportunity to evaluate your life. Is the hope of the gospel reflected in how you live?
Expect Blessing
When I was growing up in Southern California, we prepared for the possibility of a major earthquake. They would have drills at school for us to practice taking shelter under our desks. Some experts predicted that sooner or later a big one would cause part of the state to shear off and crumble into the Pacific Ocean. When you consider that the area is also prone to brush fires and mudslides, you might wonder why so many would risk living there. Southern California is very pleasant, if you can overcome the fear of what might happen. Most of the time people just don’t think about it. But when a significant tremor does hit, some people give up and move elsewhere.
There is a similar dynamic that we face as Christians with the risk of persecution. At the beginning of his letter, Peter acknowledges that his readers have been grieved by various trials (1:6). In verse 12 of chapter 2, he refers to people making false accusations against them. We will see in chapter 4 that he speaks of Christians being maligned for not going along with the world’s debauchery. Of course, we also know that some early Christians were martyred for their faith in Jesus.
Why would anyone risk following him? It is worth the risk because he alone gives us the hope of eternal life, and he wants us to share that hope. But the fear of opposition tempts us to withdraw from the world, to compromise with it, or to ramp ourselves up to fight against it. Peter wants us to be prepared for opposition, but he also wants us to faithfully represent our hope by living with the expectation of blessing. In 1 Peter 3:13 and the first part of verse 14, he 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.
Back in verse 9, Peter calls us to bless people who revile us--to speak good of them, which includes praying for God to bless them. But when he speaks of being blessed here in verse 14, he uses a different term. It is the same word that Jesus uses in the Beatitudes. It can be translated as “happy”. In fact, Peter’s words sound very similar to Matthew 5:10, which tells us that Jesus said, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
The hope of living forever in Christ’s kingdom is such a great blessing that it should outshine any suffering that we might face. Opposition can even serve as confirmation that we are on the right path. So, our hope should fill us with a triumphant sense of happiness. Our lives should reflect the expectation of God’s ultimate blessing in eternity.
But Peter also seems to have in mind the expectation of blessing here and now. He asks, “Who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?” The way that he phrases this question implies that you will probably not be harmed. This idea is reinforced when he says, “Even if you should suffer…”
So, we should not be surprised if we face opposition for our faith, but that reality should not define our outlook on life. We should be zealous for what is good. Instead of the word “zealous,” some ancient manuscripts have a word that means imitate or follow. That difference is reflected in the King James Version, but the point is the same either way.
We should not live under a dark shadow. Our lives should be marked by the Christlike goodness that flows from the confident expectation of God’s blessing now and forever. How can we maintain that positive outlook? Peter tells us as he describes a second way of representing our hope.
Exalt Christ
We love stories. More than a form of entertainment, stories are how we make sense of the world and our place in it. But people look at the same events and see radically different stories. One person’s hero is someone else’s villain. It all depends on your point of view.
To believe the gospel of Jesus is to let him define our personal stories. We must accept his view of the past, present, and future. We must allow him to determine what we value, how we live, and where we are headed. In fact, we are all just part of his story, and it is this conviction that enables us to face the possibility of suffering with a triumphant sense of hope. I think that this is what Peter is getting at in the second part of 1 Peter 3:14, and the first part of verse 15 when he says, “Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy…”
Peter adapts these words from the Greek translation of Isaiah 8:12-13. When Isaiah wrote that passage, the people of Judah feared that the armies of Syria and Israel would attack them. Ahaz was king of Judah, and he should have trusted the Lord to protect them. Isaiah even offered him a sign as confirmation, the sign that a virgin would conceive and bear a son named Immanuel (Isa 7:14). But Ahaz and his people did not trust that God was in control of their story. They believed that they were in a great chaotic struggle of competing deities, military powers, and political conspiracies. So, Ahaz disobeyed God’s commands. He compromised and formed an alliance with the Assyrian Empire and their false gods.
If we allow ourselves to be controlled by fear of the world, we are heading down the same path as Ahaz. We are drifting away from the story of the gospel. We are not trusting that God is in control and will fulfill his promises. We are embracing the idea that life is a struggle of power and politics. That disturbing thought then leads us to respond by fleeing, fighting, or compromising, rather than confidently doing good and sharing the hope of the gospel.
Peter calls us to honor Christ the Lord as holy. Some ancient manuscripts speak of honoring God as holy, which is what Isaiah 8:13 says. But the more reliable manuscripts of 1 Peter speak of Christ. He is the Lord and we should exalt him in our hearts. We should make a personal commitment to submit to his teaching and commands. We should reflect his rule by walking in holiness rather than following the sinful ways of the world.
But honoring Christ as Lord in your heart also means accepting that he is Lord over everything, not just over you. From an Old Testament perspective, to call him Lord is to say that he is God. We can and should trust that nothing is outside of his control. That was God’s original message to Isaiah, and it is the point that Peter makes here for Christians.
We are all tempted to be fearful and troubled sometimes. But we should not give ourselves over to those feelings. We must remember that they are inconsistent with belief in the Lordship of Christ. In those moments, we must take charge of our thoughts and reaffirm our belief that God is in control. Later in 1 Peter 5:6-7, Peter says,
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
It is humbling to say that the story is not all about me and my concerns. But we can relinquish those anxieties because our God is powerful and loving. We can live with the confident hope that his perfect plan will be accomplished as his gospel story continues to unfold. Exalt Christ as Lord in your heart. That leads us to a third way to represent our hope--explaining it.
Explain Hope
Lighthouses serve different purposes. Many of them today are nothing more than historical monuments, relics of a great seafaring tradition. Some have become entertaining tourist stops, businesses that work hard to attract customers. A few still stand on rocky shoals, always warning ships to keep clear and avoid destruction. But then there are others that shine to guide ships into safe harbor.
You find a similar variety of purposes in churches. Many focus on maintaining traditions. Some operate like businesses, attracting people with an entertaining show. A few take strong moral stands, always warning about cultural destruction. But the mission that Jesus gave us as his followers is to shine and guide people into the safe harbor of salvation.
Peter tells us to be ready to explain our hope. This focus accompanies the exaltation of Christ in our hearts. In the middle of 1 Peter 3:15, Peter speaks of, “… always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you…”
The word “defense” suggests a formal legal setting. Matthew 10:17-18 tells us that Jesus warns his followers that they will be delivered over to courts and dragged before governors and kings. In fact, Jesus, Peter, and Paul all experience situations like that. But they never offer a legal defense per se. Instead, they take those opportunities to proclaim the gospel.
Here Peter speaks of making a defense to anyone who asks, so he is thinking of more than courtrooms. Our lives should be marked by such a clear sense of hope that we spark genuine curiosity in those who know us. Obviously, such conversations will never happen if we withdraw from the world. We should always be cultivating meaningful, caring relationships with people outside the church.
Peter speaks of always being ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you. We are not called to be social critics or morality police. To understand the hope of salvation, people do need to grasp the concepts of sin and judgment. But in Romans 2:14-15, Paul says that the work of the law is written on people’s hearts. They already feel conviction over their sins. That is why they try so hard to say that certain behaviors are not sinful, but no amount of social acceptance ever puts their conscience at ease.
We must prepare ourselves with key Scripture passages to explain the various facets of biblical hope. We could turn to Romans 5 to show how we are forgiven, justified, and reconciled with God through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus. We might take someone to 1 Corinthians 15 to help them grasp our hope of victory over death and to Revelation 21 to see what eternity will be like. We could also look to John 14 to explain our anticipation that Jesus will return and the help that he gives us here and now through the Holy Spirit.
So, our reasoning should be anchored in Scripture, but it should also be personal. Peter speaks of the hope that is in you. Knowing passages like the ones that I just listed is not just for pastors and biblical scholars. We should all be actively relying upon them to give us hope and strength. Our explanation of hope should be a personal testimony of what these great truths mean to us.
Are you ready? Can you light the way for others to find safe harbor in Christ? Our personal experience leads into a fourth way that we represent hope.
Exhibit Goodness
Driving in heavy traffic can bring out the worst in us. You might become impatient with the delay and feel the impulse to take an alternate route. You might feel obsessed with getting ahead and offended when others seem to be edging you out. In those moments, we need a bigger perspective. If you could rise above, you might see that the delay is only temporary or that you are already on the best possible route.
Our hope in Christ gives us a bigger perspective on life. When we face some kind of opposition to our faith, our hope should keep us from responding with anger or impatience. We should exhibit a Christlike goodness in how we respond. Beginning at the end of 1 Peter 3:15 and continuing down to verse 17, Peter says,
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.
There in verse 17 Peter reminds us of God’s sovereignty. Our hope is not just that God will work things out for good in the end, but that he is at work in all the circumstances along the way. Times of suffering are not necessarily a punishment for something that we have done wrong. They may simply be part of his grand plan. So, we need to keep doing good and trusting him.
At the same time, one of the comforts when people revile us or mistreat us is that God sees it and will hold them accountable for it. In verse 16, Peter says that they may be put to shame. That may refer to God’s judgment, but it could also mean that they realize their error and come to repentance. Either way, we must trust God and continue doing good. It should be a matter of conscience for us before the Lord, regardless of how people treat us.
That takes us back to verse 15. This hope and confidence in God should lead us to treat people with respect, literally with fear. This is not a fear of people but of God. As those who are saved, we should not fear his condemnation or rejection, but we should fear that we would do anything to misrepresent our loving heavenly Father who created all human beings in his image.
So, Peter says that we should treat people with gentleness or meekness. Matthew 11:29 tells us that Jesus described himself as being gentle. He offered rest to those who were weary and heavy-laden. To faithfully represent him, then, we should conduct ourselves in the same way even toward those who antagonize us.
In the Beatitudes, Jesus links gentleness or meekness to hope. Matthew 5:5 tells us that he said, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” That is the bigger picture that we must keep in mind. Jesus will return and reign so that the kingdom of God is fully realized on earth. All of us who trust in him can be confident in the inheritance that is waiting for us. There is no need to worry about the opposition. Don’t become impatient with them or angry. Trust God’s plan and exhibit Christlike goodness.
__________
Does your life represent the hope of the gospel? Do you have a confident expectation of God’s blessing? Do you exalt Christ by trusting his lordship? Are you ready to explain your hope? Do you exhibit Christlike goodness in your attitudes and actions?
None of this is possible apart from faith in the gospel. If you have never done so, I encourage you to believe in the saving work of Jesus and to start honoring him as Lord. If you would like to learn more about the power of gospel hope, the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the Philippians would be a good place to read.
Perhaps you have been a believer for a while, but you have never learned how to explain the gospel. As I mentioned earlier, there’s no single formula for doing so. Paul’s letter to the Romans is a good place to begin. Memorizing a few key verses would be helpful. Beyond that we should always continue deepening our grasp on what it means to be saved.
How is your attitude toward the lost people of the world? Perhaps it needs to change. May we reflect the character of Christ!
Reflect
If someone observed your life, what evidence of hope would they see?
What could you do in times of fear or suffering to remind yourself of Christ’s Lordship?
How would you explain the hope of the gospel to someone who does not understand it?