1 Peter 3:13-17 | When the Right Thing Goes Wrong

Sunday Morning | December 1, 2024 | John C. Majors | Louisville, KY

In his sermon "When the Right Thing Goes Wrong," part of the series 1 Peter: Finding Joy in Suffering, Pastor John examines 1 Peter 3:13-17 to explore how Christians can navigate difficulties even when doing what is right. He begins with an assumption that suffering may follow righteousness, challenging believers to embrace it without fear. Next, he presents a two-part strategy: first, fearing the right things by placing reverence in God above human opposition, drawing from Isaiah 8:12, and second, being prepared to defend one’s faith with gentleness and respect. Finally, Pastor John highlights the motivation to endure, citing Romans 12:20 to remind us of the redemptive power of responding to adversity with goodness, which glorifies God and points others to Him.

You can join us on Sunday mornings at 11 AM for worship. We are located at 8911 3rd Street Road, Louisville KY 40272.

Transcript

0:03

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. Well, we're continuing in our study of First Peter, where we've been on this theme of finding joy in suffering. How do we not just survive suffering? And sometimes that's what you have to do, but how do we also find joy in the midst of it? This week in particular, Peter is going to talk about what do you do in those times where you think you're doing the right thing, where you're trying to do the right thing, and yet you suffer for it? I remember back a moment where I experienced this in elementary school. We were on the bus and the bus driver loved her tunes. She would always play one of two eight tracks rotated back and forth through them, and one day she said, threw it out to the bus. Hey, if you guys got an eight track you'd like to play, I'd love to hear it. Let's mix it up a little bit, bring in some new music. And I thought, I can't wait to introduce them to the Imperials. Now, if you know the Imperials, you know they're like a gospel band, but kind of slower even. And it's not necessarily what you want to introduce your elementary school classmates to. I didn't know that. I thought, this is great. They're going to love it, too. The teacher, the bus driver asked, so I brought the track, handed it to her. She was excited. The bus was excited. Something new. And she put it in. And I'm telling you, within 30s I knew this was a big mistake. Big mistake because no one would even look at me. They did not want to hear this music. The worst part was that the bus driver either, who knows why, either to make me suffer more or because she just didn't know what else to do. She just let the whole thing play, even though right away we all knew this is not music that is welcomed on this bus we show up at school. It was like a 45 minute drive. It was down Carter Elementary. We show up at school, she takes out the track and she walks over to me and she goes, don't bring this back again. Now, you know, here I was. I thought I was doing a good thing. I thought, let me introduce people to some Christian music, some music that's enjoyable. She asked. I'm here to help out. And yet I was punished for it. I suffered for, of course, that is a very small punishment or suffering in life. What about when you are trying to do the right thing because of your faith and you're punished for it? You suffer for it. Maybe it's an employer, maybe it's a family member, maybe it's a neighbor. Someone you thought I was. I thought I was doing the right thing. One of our elders says where I work, no good deed goes unpunished. You've had that happen. What do you do? Well, Peter, in this passage today is going to share with us, I think, three things in particular. We're going to be in chapter three, verses 13 through 17. Here we're going to see him first address an assumption about suffering for doing well. Then he'll give us a strategy. What should I do then? If I'm suffering? But then lastly will be a motivation. What should be my motivation in the midst of that? So we'll have an assumption, a strategy, a motivation. Those are going to be if you have a church Bible verse, Peter three is on page 954. Go ahead and turn there and we'll look at those three things assumption, strategy, motivation. First Peter three verse 13. 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 as 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. The first thing we see here is an assumption about this reality of those who might be persecuted, might suffer for doing good. In verse 13 he says, who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? And here's the assumption. The assumption is that that's not normal. In fact, he uses a it's kind of a rhetorical question. You expect the answer to be, well, no one. And then there's actually in this verse, I won't drag it out. But in the original language is a very rare verb form that assumes this whole situation is unlikely. It's almost like he's saying that's not likely to happen, though, is it? If you who is there to harm you, if you are zealous for what is good? And of course, this was kind of the point of last week's message. In Psalm 34, we saw that that was a quote in first Peter from Psalm 34, and that David in that instance had been depending on God to rescue him from a dangerous situation. And God did, and God was faithful. God rescued his anointed one. And so David writes out some instruction to us. And so if you're to live out some of what's listed here, keep your tongue from evil, turn away from evil, do good, seek peace, and pursue it. These are verses ten through 12. If you live that out, more than likely things are going to go well for you. If you follow God's plan, the assumption is more than likely things will go well. Not only that, but when it says who is there to harm you? We know as Christians we know at the end of the day, there is no harm that can happen to us on earth. Yes, of course there's physical harm, but ultimate harm is not possible. I'm thinking of Romans chapter eight where they talk about what? Where he talks about what can separate us from the Lord. Can anything can death, persecution, peril? Can anything separate us from the Lord? No, nothing can. And so we know that even in the midst of whatever trial we might face, ultimately no one can do us real, significant, eternal harm. So that's the assumption here. The assumption is that it's not likely. And yet verse 14 addresses the other side of the coin. Look at verse a coin. Look at verse 14. But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed. Maybe it's not likely. Maybe it's not normal that you suffer for doing good. But it does happen. It can happen. Maybe the assumption is is that it's not likely to happen. It does happen. Many of you have had it happen. What should our mindset be in the midst of that? And Peter uses an interesting word here. He just uses the word blessed. In fact, again in the original language, it doesn't have the verb here. Even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed. It doesn't say you will be blessed, just says blessed. Just a declarative word. Blessed. It doesn't always feel that way, though, does it? In the midst of the challenge, in the midst of the suffering, it doesn't feel like this is blessing really. This is partly why we come here every week, because the messages we hear all week long, at every turn, at every layer of the world, is that your significant if you buy this thing, if you live this way, if you value this other thing, and we come here to get a true reminder of where our value is rooted in fact, that word blessed is going to be a familiar one. If you've read other words of Jesus, flip over to Matthew five. This is probably the most prominent place where that word is used. It's going to be a few pages back the front of the New Testament. Matthew five is famously called the sermon on the Mount. That's where it's one of Jesus's longest recorded sermons. And he starts out just with that word, blessed over and over and over again. And by doing this, and we're going to read some of these phrases, here's what he's doing. He is reversing what the world values. He's saying. You want to know what is really a blessed life? Let me tell you. And you look at Matthew chapter five and we just read off a few of these phrases. Verse three blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers. But then he lands in verse ten, 11 and 12 where Peter is talking about today, you know who's blessed, the culmination of blessing. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. Same phrase Peter draws on persecuted for righteousness sake. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you, persecute you, utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. I was in a meeting once with a group of guys. We were serving in a ministry, and one of the local businesses was accusing our ministry of some things that weren't true. And in this meeting, one of the guys in this meeting was very upset. Furious about these false accusations. And that's the time, though, for us, according to this verse, our response to that should be rejoice and be glad, for our reward is great in heaven. Now, I'm not talking about if they have legitimate gripes against us. That happens too. We're not perfect. Just because someone is upset with you doesn't mean that you're suffering for righteousness sake. Sometimes you really blew it. But there are times when you take a stand for Christ and you suffer as a result. And it's not natural. But here is our call rejoice. Be glad your reward is great in heaven. God's values are different than the world's values, and we've got to keep reminding ourself of that truth over and over and over again. Here the assumption is this isn't likely. It's not normal, but it happens. Now, what do you do if you have suffered for righteousness sake, if you suffered because you've taken a stand for your faith and someone persecuted you for it, you're trying to do the right thing. What do you do? He's going to give us a couple of strategies here. I think two separate strategies in the next group of verses. Look back at verse, last part of verse 14. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled. Verse 15- 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, yet do it with gentleness and respect. The first strategy here is to make sure you're fearing the right things. Make sure you fear the right things. Notice here, he says, do not fear them. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled. Here he's quoting Isaiah chapter eight. We already know Peter loves to quote the Old Testament. He's already quoted Isaiah chapter eight back in chapter two of First Peter, where he talked about a stone, a stumbling, a rock of offense. He was quoting from Isaiah chapter eight then, he's quoting here again from Isaiah chapter eight. In Isaiah chapter eight, the setting there was that the Assyrians were about to attack Israel, and Isaiah was warning them. But in Isaiah the wording is a little different. It says, do not fear what they fear. That's a good reminder. We're we're called not to fear what the world fears. The the world fears missing out. If I miss out on something, I'm less of a person. The world has different fears than we're called to have. That's what Isaiah says to them. Don't fear what they fear. Peter gives it a different emphasis and he says, not only don't fear what they fear, don't fear them, don't fear them, don't fear what they might do to you.

Jesus says that in Matthew 10: 13:12

28 he says, do not fear those who can kill the body, but not not the soul. Rather, fear those who can destroy both the body and soul in hell. Make sure your fears are in the right place. Have no fear of them. Don't fear what they can do. Don't let your fears be rooted there. Instead, look at what he says in response to that. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled instead, but in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy. Some translations sanctify the Lord. Of course, we can't sanctify him. We can't make him more holy, but we can remind ourselves constantly of how holy he is. I think that's the most powerful part of us worshiping together in the morning. I mean, we just start by saying over and over again, here's what's true at my heart needs to hear it because it doesn't believe it or it quickly forgets it. The smallest little thing happens and I forget how great God is. I get overwhelmed by this tiny circumstance. It becomes everything, but I've gotta over and over again tell my heart he is holy. I've got to fear him. You know, the disciples went through this exchanging fears, fear of man for the fear of God. The disciples in acts chapter five, they're preaching out publicly. They're preaching in the temple grounds, and Jewish leaders arrest them and say, you got to stop talking about this Jesus guy. He's dead and gone. And the phrase they say back to them, by the way, this is Peter. Peter, the guy who hid and denied Jesus. Here's what they say to those leaders. We must obey God rather than men. Do what you need to to us. Do what you want, but we've got to obey God, not not you. Talk about boldness. I mean, when you fear the right things, that's where boldness comes from. Boldness for the gospel. Peter made that exchange. The disciples made that exchange. We feared man before. We feared what man would do to us. And now we fear God. So fear the right things is the first strategy. Make sure your fear is rooted in the Lord and honoring him more than your fear of what anyone might do to you. But the next strategy here is in the next couple of verses. Look at verse 15- 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. The second strategy is to be prepared. Make sure you're prepared. Make sure you're ready. And I think there's three ways to be ready within the midst of this. These won't be on the screen, so you'll want to capture these three ways to be ready. First is spirit ready. Make sure your spirit is ready. What I mean by that is make sure you're attentive to what the Holy Spirit is doing. Make sure you're listening. You're sensitive to how he might be moving, and might be opening the heart of someone else to want to hear about what God has done in your life. I've got a friend like this. Everywhere we go, he is always in tune. He's always listening for just a word, a hint. Someone might say, it doesn't matter. We might be out on a bike ride. We might be in a coffee shop. He's listening, waiting. Ready. Ready to initiate. Oh, you like coffee? You know, God’s like coffee. He brews. Let me tell you about what God has done in my life. I mean, he looks for any hint to start to bring up a conversation. He's sensitive. He's thinking about his. He's ready in his spirit to defend the faith, the God, the hope that God has given him. That's the first way. The second way, spirit ready. Second way we see here is mind ready. Mind. You have prepared your mind to talk to others about the hope you have in yourself. He says it this way always be ready. Look back at verse 15, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for the reason that's in you. Interesting part of that phrase. Make a defense in the original language. That sounds a lot like our word apology. That's where we get the phrase. You may have heard a Christian apologetics. Christian apologetics is where you learn to defend the faith. The confusing part of that, though, is when we use the word apology normally, we mean, I'm sorry because I'm wrong when I apologize, but that's not what this means here. When Paul was brought before Jewish leaders and told to defend his face, he faith, he wasn't saying, I'm sorry for being a Christian. No. He was making a case. Here's why I'm a Christian. Here's why you should be to so much so that Agrippa, King Agrippa was like, hey, are you trying to make me a Christian? Yes I am, that's the point. Be ready. And I know many of us are. I'm sure you've thought this, I thought this. I'm sure others have said this to you. I'm. I'm kind of scared to talk about my faith because I won't have all the answers. Anybody else here afraid of not knowing something? Afraid of looking like you're wrong. That's probably my biggest fear in life. One I've struggled with my whole life. I gotta, I gotta, I can't be seen as not knowing something. My gosh, who can know everything you want to know what's more powerful than that? Okay, three little words. I don't know. Let's figure it out together, I don't know. Good question. Let's figure it out together. One of the things we do here at church to help equip you, we do a dgroup, probably almost every tomb two, term. We do a dgroup on Wednesday nights. That's where you can get equipped, especially around Christian apologetics. We usually have one class in particular on that call, something around Christian worldview. Here's how you can better understand the questions the world is wrestling with. Here's how you can be better equipped. Check out one of those groups. We have one going right now.

Wednesday night, 6: 19:22

30. But also just in your regular conversations with other Christians, talk about your faith. I think a lot of times we just assume a certain spiritual state about others we know well and talk about what God is doing in your life. Just bring it up occasionally. Hey, tell me, what is God teaching you right now and not to put you on the defensive? I just want to hear what God's doing in your life. And you know what? And and be honest. If he's doing nothing in your life right now, just say it. It's okay. Look, I got to tell you, this is a dry season. Will you pray for me? That's okay. But look for opportunities. Even with Christians who love you to talk about your faith in your small group. Say someone. Share your testimony. How did you come to know Christ? Remind yourselves of what he did in your life over and over again. And here's why that's important. You need to pause and remind yourself of how Christ rescued you regularly. It's too easy to forget all he rescued you from. Remind yourself one easy way to do that is just to tell others. Tell other Christians. Tell other friends. Tell other family members. Here's what he did in my life. You've got to hear it because I've got to hear it. Be prepared in spirit, be prepared in mind. And then lastly, be kind. Be prepared to be kind. Look at how he ends this section. Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks for a reason, for the hope that is in you. Here's the caveat. Yet do it with gentleness and respect. Having a good conscience. Sometimes people hear that. Always be ready to defend your faith and they love that idea of defending to the point of where they're defensive and off putting, and they get to the point where no one wants to be around them, and they're angry about their faith. But here it says, do it with gentleness and respect and with a good conscience. I've never seen anyone won to the faith through someone's aggressiveness and arguing and anger. They might pretend to agree with you to get rid of you. Instead, we show gentleness. We show respect, we show kindness. I would hope that anyone who is wrestling with Christianity, wrestling with what it means to follow Christ. If I would hope that if we talked, they would walk away going, maybe I don't agree with that guy, but I felt like he respected me. I felt like he listened to me. I felt like he cared about me. We're not here to pressure anyone into the faith. God is at work and things take time. Yeah, occasionally someone has a radical conversion. Everything changes all at once, but usually it's a lot more of a long, slow process. I mean, just think about how many of you never even learned how to program a VCR. You know, the VCR has come and gone and you try to figure it out how long it took to try to figure that out. Most people know nothing about the Bible. It's going to take a while for them to wrestle with questions. Let's be patient. You can't shortcut that process. God's at work. Trust that he's at work in there. Let's keep praying. Keep pressing in. Be kind through it all. Be prepared. So the assumption is not likely, but it does happen. We have a strategy. But there's a reason for all this. I love that Peter does this over and over again. He gives us the reason, the motivation for why. Why should I try? Why should I be prepared? Look at this. The motivation. It's in verse 16. Have a good conscience so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. Now, part of you may feel like really, I should desire for someone to be shamed, to be put to shame. Some of us are going finally, you're speaking my language, right? Thank you. I love that verse in Romans 12 about dumping burning coals on their head when you show them kindness. Right? That's my verse. I'm going to claim that one for the Lord's victory. Well, that doesn't mean you want to actually hurt them. It's a lot. It's kind of like an idiot. It's almost like when you say, hey, are my my ears were burning. You don't mean they were literally on fire. It's just a way of saying something else was going on. When you say you're going to dump burning coals on their head, here's what you hope is that it sears their conscience. Not so that then you were vindicated. They finally saw how right I am. No, so that they finally see how right Jesus is. They finally see I have been so wrong. And you've had that happen where you've had that searing warmth pass over you when you saw, I thought, by the things I was pursuing, I thought I was going to find hope and joy and life there. And it was a dead end. And I even ridiculed those who follow Christ. That's the kind of shame you want in your life. Not a stifling shame, but it's the shame that points us to Christ. It's the guilt of our sin. And when you're ready, look. And this is how it goes. It's hard to hear. God likely will use your suffering to point others to Christ. But if you got to go through suffering, that's what you want. That's the point of verse 17. It's better to suffer for doing good than suffer for doing something stupid. I don't think that's the Greek per se, but it's true. Wouldn't it at least be great to know that through the challenge I've faced, God, use that to bring someone else to him. John Piper tells a story. He's a popular pastor and author. He tells the story of a woman, a muslim woman. She grew up muslim, lived in a muslim country where it was illegal to be Christian. But she comes to Christ, she becomes a widow. She comes to Christ all alone, and she's telling others about Christ. Let me tell you about the hope I have in Christ. She's proclaiming Christ. And so doesn't take long. They take her to prison and they start to beat her and torture her for this. And she finally gets to the point one night she's like, oh Lord, I can't take this anymore. This is all I can handle. I can't handle this suffering anymore. And she said, I opened my mouth to scream out, to cry out to the Lord, take this away. I can't handle it anymore. And when she opened her mouth, what came out instead? Full intention of screaming out. Instead, what came out was a song of praise. It surprised her too. And what she heard. She was expecting immediate beatings, retribution, and as she was singing a song that surprised herself, she heard the guards go silent. She heard the prison go silent. Everyone there goes silent. All the stirring and scuffling of life. Still. And the next morning the police chief comes down and opens the door. And he said, I'm going to let you go. On one condition. I heard you singing praise last night. He said, every woman in my life is racked, is stifled with fear. Everyone I know is overwhelmed with fear. And yet here you are. You fear nothing. I'm going to let you go on one condition. That you come to my house and you tell the people in my house how it is that you can do that, how it is that you can have hope and no fear when everyone I know is overwhelmed with fear. Would you do that for me? God used her suffering to tell others about Christ. I don't know what he's doing in your life right now. But I know there's some heaviness in this room. I've already experienced it in a few conversations this morning. I know many people are carrying a lot. That's hard to hear. I don't like hearing that. I don't like hearing when anyone suffers. My prayer is that he uses that in your life to his glory this week. I don't know what that looks like. I don't know what he has in mind, but I hope that you can trust his word and hang on to the word blessed. Let's pray. I can't imagine, Lord, what it must have been like for that woman to be beaten because she preached your name. It's so easy to tell that story. I pray for the Muslims around the world who have come to know you, and now face an insane amount of persecution. God, would you open doors for us to come alongside them and pray for them, and to help them and to serve them, and to see your name proclaimed throughout the world. But God here today in Valley Station and Louisville, Kentucky, and our little worlds, you're at work and whatever every person in this room is facing, especially those who thought they were trying to do the right thing or being persecuted for it. Would you give them hope and courage today? In fact, if you need prayer today in particular because you feel like I have been trying to honor Christ and I'm being persecuted for it, I'll just stand where you are and we'll have a couple of people put their hands on you and pray for you if you're comfortable with that. If not, that's okay. But now would be a time to just ask for prayer specifically. Just stand right where you are. A few people will gather around you, put their hands on you, put their hands on you. There's one person back here. If you would, a few people would gather around them. Just lay hands on them, pray for them. I'm just going to keep praying. I know many are suffering and not always want to stand up about that, but you give us peace and hope today. Jesus. Will we find our peace in you, not in our strength. But in you. Help us to remember how you worked in our lives through your death, your resurrection, your death on our behalf. Thank you for forgiving our sins. Jesus, we love you. Amen.