OPEN: Little Johnny was walking down the beach, and he spied a matronly woman sitting under a beach umbrella on the sand. He walked up to her and asked, "Are you a Christian?"
"Yes." she replied.
"Do you read your Bible every day?"
She nodded her head, "Yes."
"Do you pray often?" Little Johnny asked next, and again she answered, "Yes."
With that he asked his final question, "Will you hold my quarter while I go swimming?"
APPLY: That little boy believed that a ONLY a woman who was a Christian would be trustworthy. He wasn’t willing to entrust his quartet with anyone else. Why would that boy believe that? Perhaps it was because that’s what he’d been taught… or because that was what he had observed.
I. In I Peter 3:16, we find Peter telling us that we need to be sure that this what the world needs to see and needs to believe about us.
Look again with me at verses 15 & 16:
“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. 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, keeping a clear conscience…” (WHY???) “…so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” (1 Peter 3:15-16)
In other words, we should live our lives in such a way that even wicked men will know they can trust us with their quarters.
How do I know what kind of life I should live? Well, Peter gives us a whole laundry list of the behavior that we need to exhibit:
* Live in harmony with each other (vs. 8)
* Be sympathetic (vs. 8)
* Love as brothers (vs. 8)
* Be compassionate (vs. 8)
* Be humble (vs. 8)
* Don’t repay insults with insults but with blessing (vs. 9)
* Turn from evil and do good (vs. 11)
* Always be prepared with an answer for the reason you live as you do (vs. 16)
ILLUS: A man by the name of William Willimon remembered that back in high school, every Friday and Saturday night, as he was leaving home to go on a date, I remember my mother bidding me farewell at the front door with these weighty words, “Don’t forget who your are.”
You know what she meant.
She did not mean that I was in danger of forgetting my name and my street address.
She meant that, alone on a date, in the midst of some party, in the presence of some strangers, I might forget who I was. I might lose sight of the values with which I had been raised, answer to some alien name, engage in some unaccustomed behavior.
“Don’t forget who you are”.
That’s what Peter is telling us in this letter. Peter’s telling us “Don’t forget who you are”.
II. Well… who ARE we???
ILLUS: Back when I was a little boy, my dad owned a 20 acre trailer park with 100 permanent trailers and a summer trade of camper trailers on a nice fishing lake. And – of course – there were families in the park that had little kids my own age. When I was about 11 years old, my dad would take me aside and carefully instruct me that I should remember that I was the son of the owner.
Now, he wasn’t telling me that to instill pride or arrogance in me. Dad hated that. In fact, once I bragged to dad “I’m proud to be a Strite!” He looked steadily at me and asked “what did you ever do about that?”
So dad wasn’t tring to instill pride in me when he reminded me that I was the son of the owner. He was telling me that how I behaved reflected back on him. If I behaved badly, or I was a bully, or I mistreated any of the other children that would reflect badly on him… and on the trailer park itself. So, I was called to a higher standard!
What Peter is telling us here in this 3rd chapter is “Be careful how you live because you belong to Jesus and how you behave out in the world can reflects badly on Jesus. You are called to higher standard, because you belong to God!
LOOK WITH ME at I Peter 3:18-22
“For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also— not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand— with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.”
In other words, you and I are not our own - we were bought with a price! Jesus DIED for our sins to bring us to God. And when you and I were buried in the waters of Christian baptism, we came up out of those waters as children of God. We “put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27 tell us) and thus we became a reflection of who Jesus is. When people look at us – they should see Jesus in our lives. That’s our goal. That’s our objective. That doesn’t mean we’re always going to do that perfectly - we’re going to mess up now and again - but we should ALWAYS examine our lives to see if we’re reflecting Jesus.
III. Now, if that’s true - if we SHOULD realize that we are a reflection of Christ in our daily lives…
Why would Peter have to remind us of that? Why wouldn’t we just come by that naturally? Why wouldn’t we ALWAYS think about Jesus in everything we do?
Well – I can think of two reasons why that might be so:
1st – many Church people tend to compartmentalize their faith.
They tend to do their Christianity inside the church walls but they hang that “Christianity” on a hanger in the foyer before they leave.
ILLUS: At the first church I served, there was a young man named Kevin who attended church regularly with his wife. Eventually he came forward to be baptized into Christ. But people told me that, for weeks before his decision, he would literally grip the pew in front him during the invitation song until his knuckles turned white.
He and I were sitting at one of the local restaurants drinking cokes together and I asked him what had taken him so long to make his decision. He explained that - as a boy - he’d gone to another church in town. Between Sunday School and Church, the men would gather out in the foyer and talk… so that’s where he’d go, and he listened as these men told their stories and laughed at each other’s jokes. He said “You wouldn’t believe the way those men talked. They told dirty jokes. They said terrible things about the preacher. And occasionally they cursed.”
In addition to that, he’d even seen “Christian men” come out of a local bar. Their behavior had so soured Kevin on Church, he didn’t give the idea of being a Christian much thought.
So, why did Kevin come to Christ? Kevin became a Christian because he realized that Jesus wasn’t like that. As he listened to the sermons and heard the songs and prayers at our congregation, he came to realize that Jesus was pure and loving. Jesus had died for his sins. And Kevin desperately wanted to belong to THAT KIND of Jesus.
But… for the longest time so-called Christians (church goers who had compartmentalized their “faith”) had reflected a Jesus, Kevin didn’t like.
We must realize that our lives are looked at by other people around us. They know we go to church. They know what we say we believe. But they also see how we behave.
And I’m here to tell you if our actions OUTSIDE the church building don’t reflect the faith we proclaim INSIDE the church building the world notices.
The 2nd reason Christians might need to be reminded that they reflect Jesus is - fear
Look with me again at 1 Peter 3:13-14:
“Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. ‘Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened.’”
What might I be afraid of? Peter tells us we might just be afraid of someone doing us harm. You might behave badly because you’re afraid someone might take advantage of you.
There is the tendency to be afraid that someone just might take advantage of us because we’re Christians. When that happens we can be tempted to behave badly. Peter tells us that fear of being taken advantage of can cause us to:
· Repay evil with evil (vs. 9)
· Repay insults with insults (vs. 9)
· Become deceitful (vs.10)
· Disrespectful (vs. 15)
· Lacking in compassion (vs. 8)
Now I could be wrong here… but I don’t think Peter’s talking about being misused by the government or by people in authority over us. I think Peter is talking about how we behave around
· the people in the factory where we work
· people we do business with
· people we live next door to
· relatives
AND NOT JUST ANY person that we work with, or do business with, or live next door to or that we’re related to. These are people who would do bad things to us. People who enjoy insulting us. People who are deceitful and disrespectful and have no compassion themselves.
You see, the problem for us is that when we’re around people like that, we feel a tendency to
Ø repay insult for insult
Ø evil for evil
Ø unkindness for unkindness
I mean, they do it to us… why shouldn’t we do it in return.
But Peter says… don’t do it. Don’t go there.
Look again at I Peter 3:10-12
“Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
In other words: remember who you belong to. Behave as a child of God. BECAUSE God rewards those who behave righteously. His ears are attentive to their prayers. BUT His face is against those who do evil.
We’ve got to watch our attitudes because if we don’t
· God won’t listen to our prayers
· And God won’t be doing us any favors
Now there are Christians who have little catch phrases that they use to justify their behavior. For example, there are those who would say “God helps those who help themselves”.
Can anybody tell me where that’s at in the Bible? Well, there’s a good reason you can’t… it’s not there! In fact, this is a quote from one of Aesop’s Fables and the quote is actually: “The gods help those who help themselves”
Not only is this quote not Biblical… it’s entirely pagan and it is evil! God doesn’t help those who help themselves! If were true Judas would be a patron saint of our faith. God doesn’t help those who help themselves. God helps those who OBEY Him!!! God helps those who love Him and are His children.
Other Christians may quote the old saying that “Nice guys finish last”. Gary Shandling disagrees, and I love his quote: “Nice guys finish first. If you don’t know that, then you don’t know where the finish line is.”
IV. Now, WHY is it so important to God that I behave with kindness and gentleness to those who might mistreat me?
One woman once said “My soul is like a mirror in which the glory of God is reflected; but sin, however insignificant, covers the mirror with smoke.”
I dare not allow myself the luxury of playing fast and loose with my faith.
I dare not allow myself to mistreat others (no matter how justified I may feel I am in doing so)
I dare not allow myself to repay evil for evil/ insult for insult/ unkindness for unkindness
BECAUSE I am bought with a price!
I have been reborn in the image of Jesus Christ!
And I am called upon - by God Himself – to be a reflection of His Son.
And when I engage in sinful behavior to deal with sinful people… smoke covers that image.
My sinful behavior clouds the reflection of the Christ I say that I love.
CLOSE: But, by contrast, when we live our lives to the best of our ability to reflect our Jesus… it can have an astounding effect on the people we’d like to influence for Christ.
My wife’s step-father, Don, was what I call a “nice pagan.” He wasn’t a Christian, but he was a lot of fun to be around. He was boisterous and secure and very sure of himself. He lived his life his own way and he knew how to control just about any situation he encountered.
One day, Diana and I were playing Pinochle at her parents’ home. I had recently taken a pulpit in a nearby town and the conversation eventually got around to Diana asking her step-father to church with her.
“No!” he thundered. He wasn’t going to go to church, he said. There was nothing but hypocrites at church.
Now I don’t know what possessed me to say what I said next. If I’d have thought about it for any length of time I’d have rejected my response as being a “cheap shot”… but I really think God put the thought into my mind. I responded “do you think that Diana and I are hypocrites?”
It’s the only time I can remember that Don seemed to back up. He was at a loss for words and he fumbled for a way to reply. But the end result was… Don started coming to church and it wasn’t long before we baptized him into Christ.
Why did he change? I sincerely believe it was because he couldn’t get away from the fact that his step-daughter and her husband weren’t the hypocrites that he’d tried to paint other church goers as being. It broke through his defenses and literally brought him face to face with Christ.
Jesus said: “Let your light so shine before men that they see your good works and glorify…” not you… but “your Father which is in heaven.”
SERMONS IN THIS SERIES (3:16 and Us)
The Temple of Power - 1 Corinthians 3:16-3:16
The Power of Music - Colossians 3:15-3:16
The Power of Trust - 1 Peter 3:8-3:22
The Power Of Love - 1 John 3:11-3:24
