Introduction
Jenny Simmons from Addison Road sings:
“When my life is like a storm
Rising waters all I want is the shore
You say I’ll be ok and
Make it through the rain
You are my shelter from the storm
Everything rides on hope now
Everything rides on faith somehow
When the world has broken me down
Your love sets me free.”
What happens when hope
disappears? What happens when we believe there’s no hope of overcoming our
substance addictions? What happens when we believe we could never love our
spouse again? What happens when we believe we’ll never get out of the financial
hole we’ve dug for ourselves? What happens when we believe we’ll never be
healthy again? What happens when we believe we can never overcome our mistakes?
What happens when we believe the storms and rising waters of life will
overwhelm us? A few weeks ago, a Kansas City Chiefs football player was arguing
with his girlfriend who was also the mother of his daughter and he shot her
multiple times killing her. Then to make matters worse, if that’s even
possible, he drove himself to the Chiefs practice facility where he met the
team’s coach and general manager and thanked them for the opportunity they gave
him and then killed himself right there in the parking lot in front of them. I
can’t guess all the precise details that led to these tragic events but I
suspect somewhere, hope was lost. The hope that things would get better or the
hope that things would change, but somehow, this young man had lost this hope.
And after he did the unthinkable, he believed there was no hope his life had
any further value. Hope and hopelessness are very, very powerful. But what
gives us hope? In what do we hope? Does what we hope in matter? I believe it
does because of where it leads us. Technically, “hope” is defined as a person or thing in which expectations are centered. While I’m not arguing
with this fundamental definition, I think it is still too broad. I think “hope”
is best defined as a “person” in which expectations are centered. Let me
demonstrate briefly: A person with cancer hopes that the cancer medication will
bring a cure. Correct? But why should a person hope such a thing? I think it’s
because deep down inside all of us, whether we know it or not, we know that
cancer is not right—cancer was not the original plan. Deep down inside all of
us, again whether we know it or not, we have a longing for the way things were originally
intended to be. While someone might be “hoping” for a cure to their cancer,
what they are really “hoping” for is to be reconnected with the way things were
originally intended to be and Jesus provides that point of reconnection. I can
provide a bit of anecdotal evidence to prove my point. Why do you suppose
Christians with terminal cancer who find out that there is no cure for their cancer,
still have hope? It’s because they know that Jesus has provided the outcome
that they hoped for even if it is not in this life. You see, ultimate hope
always leads to a person and that person is Jesus Christ. Hope is not a wish,
hope is not something based on chance, hope is the expectation of a good
outcome—that expectation can only be found in Jesus Christ because he has
provided the means for a perfect outcome for all of us even if it’s not in this
life. And here’s the beauty of hope, when we take the step to put our hope in
Jesus, we have walked a long way down the path to putting our faith in Jesus. One
of the greatest witnesses to the power of faith in Jesus Christ is the enduring
hope of people who, in the world’s estimation, should have no reason to hope. They’ve
lost husbands, wives, children, jobs, homes, finances—everything. They are
abused, marginalized, neglected and persecuted for their faith—even to the
point of death, yet they continue to hope. Why? Because Jesus said that after
he was dead for three days, he would rise back to life! Do you want to know why
hope is so incredibly powerful? The empty tomb! The empty tomb changes
everything! This is what the Apostle Peter is saying in our subject text.
Subject
Text
1
Peter 3:13-17
13 Who is going
to harm you if you are eager to do good? 14 But
even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear what
they fear; do not be frightened.” 15
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, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so
that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be
ashamed of their slander. 17 It
is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
Context
Peter’s
letter was probably written while he was in Rome between 62 AD and 64 AD. This
was probably on the leading edge of the period when Emperor Nero began his
persecution of Christians. Nevertheless, the early signs of persecution were
beginning to manifest themselves as “some of his readers have in fact been the
targets of accusations (1 Pet. 2:12), ignorant talk (2:15), evil and insults
(3:9; 4:14), threats (3:14), and malicious talk (3:16).”[1] This
general attitude toward Christians was the fertile ground that cultivated the
brutal and widespread persecution that would soon follow.
Text
Analysis
The subject
text opens with a rhetorical question that perhaps gives us a clue that Nero’s
persecution had not yet begun. Peter alludes to the general principle that people
aren’t normally persecuted for doing good. Of course, this was not the case
under Nero. Christians were persecuted just because they were Christians. Peter
covers this eventuality in v. 14a when he insists that they are blessed when
they are persecuted for doing what is right. This is a parallel to Jesus’ words
from his Sermon on the Mount when he says “Blessed are those who are persecuted
because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you
when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against
you because of me (Matt 5:10-11).” We struggle desperately with the idea that
combines suffering and blessing but we must reorient our thinking about
blessing. We are often so obsessed with our life here and now that we neglect
to see or even consider that God is more concerned with our lives in their
entirety. We see blessing as getting what we want; health, wealth and
popularity. But this is not God’s objective. Instead, we are blessed when we
are transformed into the likeness of Christ. Riches, vitality and notoriety are
temporal—they disappear at death’s door. However, who we are transcends this
life and suffering for the sake of our faith in Christ is a badge of honor (in
the Greek “blessing” can also be translated as “honor”) that we take with us
beyond this life. “It is self-evident that, in any persecution context, the
reward spoken of must lie in the future…it is confidence about the future that
can and should produce joy in the present in full contradiction of the present,
painful circumstances.”[2] Peter
continues in 14b by admonishing his readers to not fear what “they” fear. By “they”
Peter is referring to those who might be persecuting his readers. That seems
like a rather nebulous instruction, but think about it in the context of your
own life; what do you fear and why? Lest you think I’m passing judgment, I’ll
share my fears with you in the context of this lesson: I fear losing my health
or dying before seeing how my wife and girls’ lives unfold, I fear being
completely broke and not being able to provide for my family, I fear being
marginalized or useless. I know that doesn’t sound like a very good thing for a
pastor but I’ve warned you that I’m really not that different from you. However,
in addition to my fears, I have hope; hope that even if I do fall ill or die, I
will have accomplished God’s will with the part of my life that I have lived, I
hope that even if I am broke, God will care for me according to his promises, I
hope that even if I am marginalized and useless according to the world’s standards,
God will be glorified through my efforts. You see, Everything Rides On Hope!
V.
15a seems to start a new thought except that the conjunction of “but” ties it
to Peter’s previous admonition that his readers are not to be afraid. The “but”
might be better translated as, “Instead,
in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.” But what does it mean to set Christ
apart in our hearts according to Peter’s instruction? We miss the full force of
Peter’s instruction if we neglect his full instruction to set Christ apart in
our hearts “as Lord.” This is the key to Peter’s instruction. In ancient times,
the heart represented the center of the person and Peter is saying that we are
to set up Christ at the center of our lives through whom our entire person flows
much like our entire bloodstream flows to and from the heart. Having Christ as
Lord at the center or heart of our lives necessarily implies that our lives
will reflect that Lordship. “To hallow Christ as Lord means to have an inward
attitude of obedience to him that dictates our behavior in the world. Christians
will not act in any way that will bring dishonor on Christ or suggests that
they do not reverence him as Lord.”[3] V.
15b then gets to the very heart of our subject text. Our attitude, our
behavior, everything about our lives, as Christians, should elicit a response
from the world like: “Why are you like that?” “What is wrong with you?” “How
can you feel that way?” We should be different, strange, odd! We should be
revolutionaries! If God is at the center of our lives, it must change
everything; it must produce a new way to live. For example, when my girls were
growing up, they weren’t always allowed to do the same things as the other
kids; they weren’t permitted to watch the same television shows, they weren’t
allowed to listen to the same music and they weren’t allowed to dress the same
way just to name a few. They were teased and chastised and my wife and I were
not always popular for our parenting philosophies among our peers. But there
was a reason then as there is now, we are different and will not be conformed
to the world. Do you want to know what resulted from that, people asked: “Why
are you like that?” and “What is wrong with you?” and these were opportunities
to share our hope, our faith, our commitment to the way of Christ with people. This
is the trajectory of Peter’s teaching; our hope points toward something beyond
ourselves yet it is more than something, our hope points toward someone—Jesus! There
is, however, a difference between pointing someone toward Jesus and punching
them in the face with Jesus!
In vv. 15c-16 Peter tells
his readers that they are to give people the reason for their hope but they are
to do so with gentleness and respect. “If offense is to be taken, it should be
over the content of the gospel message, not because the message was offered in
a manner that invalidates Christ’s love for seekers.”[4]
Furthermore, when Peter tells his readers to keep a clear conscience, what he
is telling them is that their behavior must not disqualify them from having a
credible witness. For example, I am aware of a number of people who profess to
be Christians yet they are actively and openly living sinful, unrepentant lives
in blatant disobedience to the teachings of Scripture. This behavior
disqualifies them from having a credible witness to the hope in Christ they
profess. “An effective testimony requires a clear conscience regarding one’s
personal integrity before the Lord. One cannot explain the hope we have in
Christ while living in ways that contradict that hope.”[5] Therefore,
with a clear conscience we can confidently proclaim that the hope emanating
from our lives is the result of our hope in Jesus Christ and our behavior will
silence those who might try to wrongly accuse us. “Evidence from the following
centuries indicates that good Christian conduct was often slandered and
maligned: the nocturnal Christian worship assemblings were decried as occasions
for orgies; the love of Christian brothers and sisters for one another was
maligned as incest; baptism as a ritual of death and rebirth was decried as
murder; the Eucharist was criticized as cannibalism; and Christians continued
to be slandered as ‘wrongdoers’ and enemies of the common good. [However,] those
who persist in shaming the Christians and disparaging their honorable behavior
will themselves be put to shame.”[6]
Peter
completes his instruction in v. 17 with something that seems obvious which
means there’s probably something more to it than seems obvious on the surface. Peter
says that it’s better to suffer for doing something right than for doing
something wrong. Well first, let me just say that I would prefer not to suffer
at all! Nevertheless, there are some who seek a life of suffering because they
wrongly believe that a life of suffering earns them special favor with God. This
is a distorted understanding of suffering generally and of this text specifically
because it ignores the very important conditional statement of “if it is God’s
will.” Suffering for the sake of suffering or as a means to gain God’s favor
when such suffering is not ordained by God is sinful idolatry with no
redemptive purpose. Furthermore, suffering because of our own sin serves the
purpose of disciplining us in order to evoke grief, sorrow, repentance and
reconciliation. However, suffering for doing something right provides the
opportunity to demonstrate our abiding hope in the One who can use that
suffering for his great purpose of revealing himself to a lost and hurting
world—a world in desperate need of true hope not wishful thinking. The only way
profound grief, sorrow, loss, tragedy and suffering can be endured with supreme
dignity is by the power of hope. The only way these things can have any purpose
or meaning is when Everything Rides on
Hope!
Application
In
the song I introduced at the beginning of this lesson, singer Jenny Simmons
goes on to sing:
“Everything rides on hope now
Everything rides on faith somehow
When the world has broken me down
Your love sets me free
I am not my own
I've been carried by you my whole life”
A new friend of mine, Alisa,
who has endured profound personal loss wrote something recently that she has
gracious allowed me to share with you. She wrote: “I have been thru some
awful things in this life. Lost family, friends, even a husband…And I never
believed I would get thru. But here I am on the other side…Blessed, happy, full
of hope. That can only be God and I am so so so thankful!” What a beautiful
picture of how suffering, blessing, and hope are all part of a person’s
redemptive life story authored by God. It’s hard to say what her life of faith
might have been if only _________________. You fill in the blank of the tragic
event in her life that could have been eliminated and still guarantee her
faithful witness to the hope found in Jesus Christ. We think we know that the
outcome of her powerful witness could have been the same even if she hadn’t
lost her husband or had been spared some other tragic event. But that would
mean that we know better than God what events will produce a humble and
faithful witness in those who follow Him. Of course this kind of thinking is
folly. Therefore, we must begin to understand that righteous suffering in our
lives as Christians exhibits something tremendously powerful—hope. Like Alisa’s
beautiful witness, suffering, blessing and hope are part of our redemptive life
story as well. When we can endure our suffering in all joy and perseverance we
will inevitably cultivate an environment where unbelievers will naturally want
to know how joy is possible in the midst of suffering, or how suffering can
possibly be a blessing. Peter is speaking to you when he says to be prepared to
tell people why you have hope. In simpler terms, Peter is saying, be prepared
to tell your redemptive life story. This is your chance to be a witness to true
hope, because Everything Rides On Hope! And
that hope is Jesus Christ.
[1] Karen H.
Jobes, 1 Peter, Baker Exegetical
Commentary on the New Testament, ( Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2005),
p. 227.
[2] Donald
A. Hagner, Matthew 1-13, Word Biblical
Commentary, ( Dallas, TX: Word Books, 1993), p. 95.
[3] I.
Howard Marshall, 1 Peter, The IVP New
Testament Commentary Series, (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1991), p. 115.
[4] Jobes, 1 Peter, ECNT, p. 231.
[5] Ibid.
[6] John H.
Elliott, 1 Peter, The Anchor Bible,
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000), p. 632.
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