Hope In The Visible Spectrum

---

"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect" 1 Peter 3:15

Main Readings: Philippians 2:1-18 & Ephesians 5

Supporting Readings: Psalm 34 & Proverbs 31:10-31

I want to begin by reminding us that the banner flying over the verses that we’re working through week by week at the moment - like a battle flag leading the way - is still very much that of chapter 2, verse 12.

‘Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us’.

Peter hasn’t changed his overall focus as we move into the second half chapter 3.

It’s still, that we might display Christ to the world as we live godly lives – even in the face of suffering – amongst the people of the world.

In order that, they might come to share in this salvation of ours. And join us on the day of Christ’s coming in glorifying God.

That’s the goal of all the verses we’ve been gleaning from since just before Easter.

And every week there has been some new application for how that call on our lives is to play out. And there’s been plenty of repetition of key truths, so that they might go down deep into our souls.

Suffering for doing good is still at the forefront of Peter’s mind as we move into verses 13-17. Because that’s the situation the believers he’s writing to are in.

In verse 13 he talks about being ‘eager to do good’. In verse 14, of ‘what is right’. In verse 16 of ‘your good behaviour’. In verse 17, of ‘doing good’.

And we’ve already seen that the kind of good conduct he has in mind is the kind that reflects that of Jesus Christ.

Jesus left us his example that we might follow in his steps.

As Christians, as far as is possible, we abide by the laws of our land.

As Christians, as far as is possible we obey the instructions we’re given by our employers.

As Christians, as far as is possible, we live at peace with family members – even if they’re unbelievers.

And last time we saw Peter quoting Psalm 34 where it says, ‘they must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it’.

Since the conduct Peter has in mind is not merely good conduct by the world’s standards, it is uniquely Christian conduct.

It means that there are going to be times when following Christ’s example conflicts with doing what the world wants us to do.

When being called on by the boss to lie is greeted with the response: ‘No I won’t do that, I’m a Christian’.

When the counsel from an unbelieving friend to be done with that irritating neighbour once and for all, is met with the response: ‘No I won’t do that, I’m a Christian’.

When encouragement to engage in the slander of someone behind their back – at school or work maybe – is met with the response: ‘No I won’t do that, I’m a Christian’.

That kind of uniquely Christian conduct is going to clash with the culture.

And evidently it had for these Christian people.

In verse 16 Peter mentions the ‘malicious talk’ that was being spoken against them, which he also calls ‘slander’.

You can imagine the kind of thing: ‘These Christians are downright troublemakers. They despise our customs. They refuse to honour our gods. They talk about judgement and another king called Jesus – talk that is alien to our ears. They withdraw from respectable society, thinking themselves morally superior. They are disloyal people and, we say, dangerous for the stability of the world we know. Something has to be done about them’.

That’s the way the world, these Christians moved in, was thinking about them.

Which, if that’s the case, and they really were facing persecution for their good Christian conduct, it makes Peter’s opening sentence here, in verse 13, really quite perplexing. He says, ‘who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good?’

And you’re left wondering to yourself if Peter’s forgotten altogether, who he’s writing to!

And it gets more perplexing, when verse 14 is taken into account, where Peter adds, ‘But even if you should suffer for what is right [so clearly he hasn’t forgotten who he’s writing to], you are blessed’.

So, which is it, Peter? Your rhetorical question in verse 13 demands the answer: ‘nobody’. Nobody’s going to harm us if we do good.

And yet our experience tells us the opposite. Good Christian conduct is likely to result in some kind of harm. And what’s more, verse 14 tells us, Peter, think so too!

There’s no doubt that Peter expects our answer to the question in verse 13 to be ‘nobody’ even though he knows - and he knows that we know - that’s absolutely not the case.

So why ask the question like that in the first place?

Well, Peter’s not mistaken in the way he’s written verse 13, he just means something different than what, on face value, we think he’s referring to.

Let’s not forget that Peter has been labouring to get us to have the mindset that we don’t belong in this world. That we are alreadycitizens of heaven.

He wants that truth; that awesome reality, to shape the way we think and respond to everything in this life.

And, by quoting Psalm 34, he just told us some of that reality. That the eyes of the Lord are on us who are righteous in Jesus. That the ears of the Lord are attentive to our prayers.

And that the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

It's with those spectacles on that Peter sees the suffering we receive from the world with an entirely different complexion to the way wewould see it if we weren’t aware or mindful of the unbelievably greatheavenly reality which is ours in Jesus.

God’s eyes and ears are for us, Psalm 34 says. And God’s face is turned against our enemies in defense of us, Psalm 34 says.

So, even though we suffer in this world and harm is done to us. We will not ultimately be harmed.

I’ve said it before, Peter is often speaking Jesus’ words after him.

Listen to these words from Jesus, to clarify what Peter is saying to us here:

‘Do not be afraid [he says] of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell’.

If we are eager to good in the name of Christ and for his sake, we willmost likely face some kind of persecution. Peter knows it; we know it.

But remember, God is for you. Remember, his eye is on you. His ear is attentive to your prayer. His face is actually turned against those who might hurt you for your good Christian conduct.

And though you suffer at their hands, they cannot harm your inheritance, no they cannot, because you already belong to another country, which they can’t get at.

But Peter’s got even more incentive for us in the face of Christian suffering: If you should suffer for doing right in this world, you’re blessed, he says.

Jesus said the same thing. He said, ‘Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

Rejoice and be glad, [why are you blessed when that happens – he tells us] because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you’.

The prophets of old – we read about Mordecai earlier; we’ve read about Daniel before; we’ve read of Joseph before – they were persecuted in this way also, but along with them, our reward is great and is in heaven.

And in that reward, which is from God, we can rejoice and be glad, even though we suffer here below.

So, this uniquely Christian perspective: of God being for us, and of the blessing he’s got stored up for us, allows Peter to quote from one of the prophets – from Isaiah. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened [that sounds like what Jesus said a few minutes ago]. But in your hearts revere [the word there is ‘fear’] Christ as Lord’.

And some versions have ‘Christ as holy’ rather than ‘as Lord’ because Isaiah says, ‘as holy’.

‘As Lord’ is good though. And putting them together, we should thinkof Jesus Christ here as THE Holy Lord God Almighty.

There’s a fear that is not befitting us as Christians. And there is a fear that is befitting us as Christians.

Peter, as God’s chosen spokesman here, is commanding our emotional responses.

We should sit up and take note of that. Because we’re being led to believe, by non-Christian psycho-analysts that we are victims of our emotional responses not masters of them.

But Peter - and Jesus we’ve heard say it also - command us to masterour emotional responses.

And as Christians indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and with this radicallydifferent and transcendent perspective on our lives here below, they command us not to fear the threats of people in this world. ‘Do not be frightened!’

But to fear Christ!

Now, we might respond by saying, ‘well hang on a second, Peter, because that fear response you’re commanding is an instinctiveresponse. It’s not a conscious choice. It just rears up in you in the moment’.

I don’t think they - Peter and Jesus that is - are talking about that.

There is a natural built-in fear response which functions in a protectiveway when we’re faced with immediate danger of some kind or another.

But what I think they’re driving at, is the kind of fear that rises when you spend time thinking about what owning Christ here is going to mean for you in terms of persecution.

Let me give you an example that works for us in the here and now, and we can all relate to.

As we know Dave spearheads the drive to knock doors in the area at the moment. And praise God for that!

The aim in that, is to present ourselves as Christians with the good news of eternal life to people who don’t know him, or even care to know him.

Some of us have been with Dave. And we know from experience that the exposure to ridicule, and hatred, and slammed doors, and hard questions and downright anger is probably higher in that hour and half than it will be at any other time in our Christian week.

And, even if we haven’t experienced that first-hand, our minds can work it out pretty quickly. And because of that we could fear going.

Even to the point that fear would prevent us from going!

And I’m speaking from firsthand experience, so it’s not like I’m notfalling foul of the very thing I’m saying Peter is telling us here this morning. I do!

It's that kind of thing that Peter and Jesus have in mind.

‘Tim, Peter says, don’t fear the people you will meet on the doors. Don’t be anxious and afraid of going and telling the good news about Jesus to lost people. Rather, fear Jesus Christ as your Lord’.

What that means is: venerate Christ above yourself. Revere him above the praise of people.

And know this, he is your sanctuary! It’s not your reputation. It’s not your ego. It’s not your self-preservation. He is your sanctuary.

Isaiah, right after saying, he is the one you are to fear, says, ‘he will be a holy place for Israel’.

Well, we are the true Israel of God - the church of Jesus Christ. And Christ will be our holy place; our sanctuary if we don’t give way to the fear of people, but revere Christ enough to make him known.

Do you know what becomes so so visible to people who watch on and see all this unfolding when we follow this pattern that Peter is laying down for us? There’s one word for it: Hope!

The hope that’s behind and underneath and saturated through this kind of conduct is made ultra visible. It gets translated from the infrared spectrum which you can’t see into the visible spectrum which you can see.

God being for us. Blessing stored up in heaven for us. Rewards coming to us. All that serves to produce in us hope.

And it’s that very hope that overcomes fear.

So, when Peter says ‘Do not fear’ he’s not relying on raw willpower.

He’s expecting that we will take the promises, and the power, and the protection he’s shown really exist, and allow that to sink deepinto our souls where it will produce meaningful and powerful hope.

Hope that says, ‘this life is not all there is’. Hope that says, ‘whatever they say or do to me, I belong to the great God who made the universe’. Hope that says, ‘justice will one day be done’.

And what that hope produces is a kind of response to reviling and mocking and persecution that is very unusual and it’s very out of stepwith the world.

And it’s at that moment when someone is likely to ask you, ‘what on earth is this hope that you have that somehow enables you to transcend what’s being thrown at you.

Tell me Christian! What is the reason for the hope that is in you?!

And now, suddenly you have a captive audience for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because your Christian conduct produced that opportunity!

But, Peter says, ‘don’t be caught out’. Don’t get all the way to thispoint and not be ready with the very word of life that is the reason for your hope, and is the reason you conducted yourself like you did.

Be ready with the gospel.

Don’t be flattered and say, ‘I’m just quite mild mannered really’.

Not only would that rob God of the work that he’s produced in you to make you respond the way you did, but it kills the opportunity dead in the water!

What is the hope you want to convey?

It’s Christ, isn’t it? Christ as saviour of my life. Christ as resurrection for my future. Christ as grace to me when he comes again. Christ as my reward when I see him in his glory. Christ. Christ. Christ!

You want to be able to say to that person, who asks you, something like what the Psalmist says, ‘Christ is God my saviour and my hope is in him all the day long’. All my life long!

What we don’t do is self-preserve. We don’t retaliate, or get on the defensive, or raise our voices.

Rather, we explain our hope with genuine care, assuming good motive behind the question, exercising gentleness.

I don’t think that both aspects of the couplet: ‘gentleness and respect’ refer to our listener here.

The first refers to the listener. Be gentle in the way you answer your listener. That’s right.

But the word ‘respect’ is the same word as the word ‘fear’ in verse 14. And Peter’s told us in verse 14 not to fear people. So, this ‘respect’ is once again, right reverence for Christ as Lord.

What would that mean? It would mean, don’t take the edge off your gospel message because you’re afraid of how it might land on your hearer.

We’re to hold in tension both the gentleness with which we convey our message and the holiness of the one we promote.

No squirminess, then, about sin. No dulling the edge of judgement. But showing the beauty of the grace of Christ for sinners who are under the just anger of God.

Which, after all, is the very essence of the hope that is within us.

You know what? In this way we’ll keep our consciences clear before God and before people.

In other words, there will be nothing to be ashamed of.

But for the ones who were persecuting us - their malicious talk and slander against us, and the good response it produced in us - willresult in their shame.

Good Christian behaviour, in the face of persecution, has this effect on people - it makes them feel bad about their own behaviour.

They’re more likely to ask you about our faith if they’re humbled like that, than if they have reason to remain proud because we’ve giventhem that reason, by reacting just like anybody in the world would.

But when we show them the fruit of the very hope they’re mocking us for, then their guilt humbles them.

Maybe even to the point of asking us that question: where does your hope come from?

Peter also says, keep a clear conscience before God ‘so that’ (v.16) ‘those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander’.

Not that it’s our goal that they be ashamed for the sake of being ashamed. Because somehow, it’s so good if they are shamed for their bad behaviour. Because somehow there’s vindication in that.

No, that’s not it.

Ashamed here is unto a humbled heart that desires to know the Christ that produced this kind of response in this people who they were just ridiculing. That’s the goal. And God intends to use it that way.

But that’s for him to decide.

Well, if we started with a perplexing sentence, then Peter’s going to endwith one too.

If verse 17 didn’t have the little phrase ‘if it is God’s will’ in it, then it would be straight forward.

In that case it would read, ‘For it is better to suffer for doing good than for doing evil’.

And that’s obviously true. I doubt any of us would struggle with thatconcept.

But the introduction of ‘if it is God’s will’ makes it much more troubling. Maybe?

Let’s get out of the way what Peter doesn’t mean. He clearly doesn’tmean that sometimes it’s God’s will that we do good and suffer for it, and sometimes it’s God’s will that we do evil and suffer for that. Butit’s better if it’s the first, and not the second.

Peter has been exhorting us at every turn in this letter to do good and not evil. So clearly, he doesn’t mean that.

The phrase, ‘God’s will’ informs the suffering, not the doing in this sentence.

God’s will is, that we always do good. And God’s will is, that sometimes we suffer for doing that good.

Which means, that here Peter has in mind that God’s will relates not to the moral domain, but to the circumstantial domain.

There is more than one way that we are to understand God’s will.

We’re to understand it in terms of what God wants us to do – that’s moral and it’s revealed in his Word.

But we’re also to understand his will in terms of circumstances which are outside of what we do and are not revealed to us.

Suffering is circumstantial. It is not under our control – even though we try to control it.

And it is not revealed to us.

What Peter is saying is that God has ordained for his people that they suffer for doing good. Which is sobering!

God has made a conscious decision about the result of every interaction we have with unbelievers. And sometimes his decision is that we suffer.

Our good and gracious, kind and compassionate, loving and tender heavenly Father has planned, ordained, purposed, and executed things that guarantee suffering will come to us by virtue of our following Jesus.

‘In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted’. So the Apostle Paul says to Timothy.

It's vital, then, that we don’t have a little ‘G’ god who only foreseeswhat is going to happen but is not in control of it.

Emphatically, the bible reveals a big ‘G’ God. A God who is in control of every single tiny detail. Even down at the sub-atomic level. Such thateven our suffering is under his purposeful sovereignty.

Not only might that be unsettling for some of us, but when you think about it, there are deeper implications here.

Think of this: the very suffering Peter has been teaching us how to respond comes at the hands not of a natural disaster or a terrible accident, but through the sinful (I repeat: sinful) designs of people.

All of which means that God sovereignly planned and purposed, and permitted the sins of these people through whom the suffering is coming on Christians like us.

And, in case you wonder, the bible is replete with God’s sovereignty displayed in this way, so that we should be in no doubt about it.

Joseph said that the sins of his brothers, which plunged him into suffering, were their plans for evil but were actually, ultimately,God’s plans for good.

By their evil actions, God saved a nation from starvation. Out of whichnation came our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ. So, there’s no doubtingthe truth of this doctrine.

But of equal importance is that we uphold the truth that there is no sin in God. He is holy and righteous. He does nothing wrong. He doesn’t temp people to sin. He doesn’t lie or change his mind.

God is not like us, and we should expect there to be mystery in his ways.

Far better to admit mystery than to reduce him to a puppet god whose nature and character are of our own making and not his own revealing.

What we know for sure, is that he has promised that he will work allthings together for our good in the end.

So the suffering he ordains for us – even via the sinful plans of people- we can say with rock solid confidence, is designed by God for our good. Even for our blessing.

Is that not amazing!

We can also say with confidence that God’s ways are past finding outand who can know them.

What if he has chosen, ordained, or purposed to demonstrate the riches of his mercy to the people of his favour, who aren’t yet saved, throughthe suffering he has ordained for us at the hands of sinners?

That seems to be exactly what Peter is pointing to here.

So, what does this last word from Peter do for us as Christians?

It’s designed to strengthen our trust in the God behind what we are being called to do.

We are not subject to the evil whims of people; we are subject to God’s sovereign plan which is designed for our good.

We are not subject to the chaotic idea that fate is in control, and we are somehow at the mercy of an impersonal, random, meaningless cascade of chance happenings.

We are subject to the plan of an all-wise, all-loving, purposeful God who wants other people to enjoy the very reality we enjoy and regard as good news!

So, Peter, inserting God’s will here, serves to strengthen our faith in the God who is behind what we are going through, and gives us confidence to embrace it in the way Peter is calling for here.

So, to sum up. We do not fear what the world may do. We do not live as though chance rules over us. We do not retreat into self-preservation.

We belong to Christ. We are held by the Father. We are led by his Spirit.

And therefore, we must do good, we must speak hope, and we must trust our God.

Until the day when, faith becomes sight, and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is fully revealed to us. And all those final blessings and inheritances cascade on our heads in a shower of unworthy benefits that God delights to show us!