All right, 1 Peter 3, verses 13 through 17. Please give your attention as I read God's holy, inspired, and errant word in your hearing. And who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed. And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear, having a good conscience that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. Thus far the reading of God's holy word. I'm always impressed by stories that you read, historical or fictional, whichever, however you want to look at it, but stories that talk about people enduring great suffering, great trials, because of a hope that is set before them. Now, if you're thinking of biblical examples of that, the ones that come to mind, of course, are Job, right? Job suffered a great deal. Job suffered a lot. You know that through the book of Job. If you've read through the book of Job recently, you know that he suffered a great deal. Yet he had a hope that kept him along the path of his suffering. It helped him to endure through the suffering. And that hope is found in Job 19, or chapter 19, I should say, verses 25, 26, and 27, where here he says, For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth. And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eye shall behold, and not another, how my heart yearns within me." That hope fueled Job through the trials and sufferings he was enduring, and also the words of his friends who were of little to no hope for him. And of course we know of Jesus, right? That's the prime example of someone who endured great suffering for a hope that laid before him. As the author of Hebrews says in chapter 12, verses 1 and 2, where the author of Hebrews encourages us to lay off the weight of sin and run the race that is set before us. How? By looking to Christ. who himself endured the cross and despised the shame of the cross. Why? For the hope and joy that was set before him. So this idea of enduring through hope is one that is constant throughout scripture and one that we see in our passage this morning. Now, 1 Peter, verses 13 through 17, really just kind of continue the thought that we saw expressed last week in verses 8 through 12. It's kind of hard to break this into two separate thoughts. It's really one thought continuing. But here in this passage, Peter is going to encourage us to endure suffering. How? Through the hope of our salvation. The hope of our salvation that he expresses earlier in the letter is that hope that will fuel us and keep us going even while we suffer in this world as sojourners in exile. So that's our theme this morning, that as sojourners in exiles, we are to endure suffering through the hope of our salvation. First, we're going to look at verses 13 and 14, as we see here, followers of good. Our passage breaks down to three points. We see followers of good, ready to defend in verses 15 and 16, and then better to suffer in verse 17. But first we see followers of good, verses 13 and 14. Look again at those verses, please. Peter again writes, and who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you are blessed. And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. Now again, following what Peter said in verse nine, right? Peter here in chapter three, starting verse eight and following, he, as I said last week, he is bringing this second part of his letter to a close, but he's kind of landing the plane, not abruptly, but he's kind of bringing it in a nice, even, you know, plain as he's bringing it down nice and calmly. So he starts in verse 8, and he's going to complete this section in chapter 4, verse 11. But here where he says, finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion from one another, love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous. And in verse 9, not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. So following on that, Peter then here asks the following question, and who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good? Other translations like the ESV will say zealous, if you are zealous for doing good. NIV says if you are eager for what is good. In other words, who is going to hurt you if you are, as a Christian, as a soldier in exile, who is going to harm you if you, yourself, are eager, zealous, and a follower of doing what is good. Now the problem is, we know that there are many out there who will love to harm us even if we do what is good, right? If you stand up for biblical morality in this world, it's going to open you up to the hatred of the world. Why? Because biblical morality stands as a stark contrast to their way of behaving. It says that you are not autonomous, but you are under God's law. And it shows that their ways are evil, that there's a God who will judge them for the thoughts and intentions of their heart. But what Peter here is giving us is sort of a all things being equal scenario. In general, it is true that if you are eager for doing what is good, no harm will befall you. We see this in Proverbs 16, verse seven. When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. And Paul in Romans 13 verse 3, when he's talking about submission to the government says, for rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same. So what Peter is bringing here where he says, who will harm you if you are followers of what is good? He is giving you again and all things being equal kind of scenario. In general, yes, it's true. If you do what is good, you will avoid most trouble in life. We don't live in an all-things-being-equal kind of world, right? We do not always live in an all-things-being-equal kind of world. That's why Peter follows up in verse 14 where he says, even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, now when he says that, right, the way he says that is in the sense is that it should be unheard of to suffer for righteousness' sake, but if you do, he says you are blessed. And then he quotes from Isaiah chapter eight, and do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. We've seen this theme of suffering in 1 Peter. You know, when I say 1 Peter is broken down into three sections, it's not like they're broken down into three neat compartments that do not overlap. Peter overlaps a lot of these thoughts. We saw suffering earlier in chapter 2, verses 18 and 19, where in the context of servants, there he says, servants be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. For this is commendable, if, because of conscience toward God, one endures grief, suffering wrongfully." And then again in chapter 4, Peter's going to address this idea of suffering again. In chapter 4, verse 12 and following, where he says there, "'Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you. But rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part, he is blasphemed, but on your part, he is glorified. So here, Peter, throughout his letter, is addressing this idea of suffering, and here he says as well in verse 14, if you suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed. Now that's, you know, again, That is not something you would commonly associate with suffering, right? If you're suffering, you don't feel particularly blessed, right? You feel cursed. That's again, going back to Job, when he was suffering the trials that God had put upon him, did Job feel blessed? Not necessarily. At times he said, well, the Lord has put his hand against me. But here we see that what Peter is saying here echoes the thoughts of Jesus, where in the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, verse 10, Jesus says, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. It's showing the upside-down nature of the kingdom of God, of which we are citizens as soldiers and exiles. Suffering for righteousness' sake is a source of blessing. And then the latter half of verse 14, he is again, as I said, he is quoting from Isaiah chapter 8, verses 12 and 13. And the context there in Isaiah 8 is the coming invasion of the Assyrian army. And Isaiah is prophesying this. And in chapter 8, verse 12, the prophet says, do not say, a conspiracy concerning all that this people call a conspiracy, nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. The Lord of hosts, Him you shall hallow. Let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread. You can kind of sense there the words that Jesus himself says to his disciples in Matthew chapter 10 when he sends them out into the world to go forth and heal the sick and cast out demons in his name. There Jesus tells them at the end of that chapter, verse 28, do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. So when Peter here says, you are blessed if you suffer for righteousness sake, and then kind of encourages them, and do not be afraid of their threats, Those who cause the suffering upon you for righteousness sake. Why? Because what's the worst they can do? What is the worst they can do? You should fear and honor God, and we're going to see that in verse 15 in a moment. But we live, again, as we've been saying throughout this entire series through 1 Peter, we live as sojourners and exiles in this world. God has called us out of darkness. We saw that chapter two, verse nine. He's called us out of darkness. He's called us by his grace in mercy. We are God's elect, right? 1 Peter 1.2, we are elect according to the foreknowledge of God. We've been called out of this world, out of the darkness of this world into the kingdom of his light. So we live then as soldiers, as foreigners in a fallen world that is not our true home. This is not our true home. And because of our foreign status, then it is possible, in fact, maybe even probable that we will face harm and suffering as Peter here is alluding to in verse 14. And again, the question could be asked, why? If we're doing good, why should we face harm and suffering? Because darkness hates the light. That's what Jesus said in John chapter 3 when he's talking to Nicodemus. He says, the light has come into the world and the world hates the light because it exposes that its deeds are evil. Jesus warned his disciples in the upper room discourse before he was about to leave. He said, if the world hates me, it's going to hate you as well because you are my disciples. But despite the potential of harm in this world, Peter exhorts us to be followers of what is good, and that we should consider ourselves blessed if we suffer for righteousness' sake. Again, why? As we'll see next Lord's Day, Lord willing, Christ is the example of suffering, and this idea of suffering for righteousness' sake is that cruciform life that we talked about earlier, that cruciform life that Jesus himself went through. Well, that leads us now to our second point in verse 15 and 16, where we are ready to defend, ready to defend. So what are we to do when we suffer for righteousness' sake? Well, we are not to return evil for evil. That's what Peter says earlier in verse 9, do not return evil for evil or reviling for reviling. So what are we to do then when, even while we're doing righteousness in this world, even though we are doing good in this world, what are we to do? We are to sanctify the Lord God in our hearts and be ready to give a defense for the hope that we have. That's what we see in verse 15. He's coming out of verse 14. Even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, sanctify or set apart the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear, having a good conscience that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. Now, some translations, ESV, NIV, and others will say, sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. There's a bit of a textual variant there, but I'm not going to get into that. Either way, the point being, when we are suffering for righteousness sake, while our temptation is to return tit for tat, right? While our temptation is, you strike me in the cheek, I'm going to strike you back in the cheek. When our temptation is to return reviling and insult for reviling and insult, evil for evil. Instead, what we are to do is to sanctify the Lord God in our hearts, to set him apart as holy. That kind of flows out of what we saw when I read earlier from Matthew chapter 10, where he says, don't fear those who can kill the body, fear him who can kill both soul and body in hell. Thus, when we are being treated evilly in this world by those who are reviling our good works, we sanctify the Lord God in our hearts. This is what we see in the Lord's Prayer, when the Lord's Prayer directs us to hallow the name of the Lord, right? We pray, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. And instead of fearing those who treat us evil, like he says in verse 14, do not be afraid of their threats or be troubled. Instead of fearing them, we sanctify the Lord God. And this prompts us then to give a defense rather than returning evil for evil, rather than returning reviling for reviling. So when they treat us badly, we do not revile them in return. Instead, we give a defense for the hope that we have. And that's what Peter here is saying here. In other words, all of us, from the greatest to the least, should be ready, should be prepared to give a defense for our hope. That word there, defense, it's apologia in the Greek. It's where we get apologetics. It's where we get apology. It's a legal term. It speaks of a legal defense in a legal courtroom. And again, quoting from Matthew 10, Jesus there tells his disciples, you will be brought before governors and kings for my sake as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak, for it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak. For it is not you who speak, but the spirit of your father who speaks in you. That's Matthew chapter 10, verses 18 through 20. So Peter here says, when we are being treated and suffering for righteousness sake, we sanctify the Lord God and we are always ready, we are prepared to give a defense for our hope. And what is our hope? Well, our hope is what Peter talks about at the beginning of this letter. the hope of our inheritance. Chapter 1, verses 3 and 4, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. Beloved, that is our hope. That is the hope that we have in this world. It's not that we live peacefully in this world. It's not that the government does everything we want it to do. It's not that everything comes up roses for us in this life. No, our hope is in our incorruptible, undefiled, unfading inheritance that is being kept for us in heaven. Our hope is that of a living hope. Our hope is that which is founded and grounded upon the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is our hope. So Peter says, look, that is what we need to give a defense of. That is the hope in which we are prepared then to give a defense to anyone who asks. And then he says, with meekness and fear. Oftentimes, it's not just what we say, but it's how we say it. With meekness and fear, having a good conscience, verse 16, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. It's kind of interesting because I won't speak of anybody here, but in the circles that I've kind of circulated in, in my entire Christian life, it seems like a lot of Christians kind of forget that second part of verse 15, with meekness and fear, right? They're ready to give a defense, but they're not ready to do it with meekness and with fear. So how we give a defense is just as important as the fact that we give a defense. Sometimes you get what we call the cage stage Christian, right? Those people who first come to faith and they're ready to go out there and tear the world apart. And you're like, maybe you need to kind of sit in a cage for a little while and relax and calm down before you go out. Because the idea of giving a defense is not going out there and owning the atheists. It's not going out there and owning the liberals. It's not going out there and shutting down people so much as it is doing so with meekness and fear. Why? Because we But for the grace of God, we're in that position at one time. Right? We wouldn't be here unless somebody with meekness and fear was ready to give a defense for their hope to us. Thus, we should also return that courtesy. Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready to give a defense for everyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Now, this verse is often cited as a proof text for the discipline of Christian apologetics. And you're like, what is a Christian apologetics? Well, it's not being sorry for being a Christian. It's the idea of defending the faith. Christian apologetics is a discipline in which we defend the faith. And there are apologetic ministries out there that defend the faith in face of skeptics who seek to criticize the faith. But here the thing is, is that Peter is not expecting those who give a defense to be sort of a special class of people who have studied and trained for this. This is something that is expected for all of us. We should all be ready to give a defense for the reason of the hope that lies within us. And that's why it's imperative for Christians not only to know what they believe, but to know why we believe it. This leads them to the importance of corporate worship in which these truths, the Christian faith which we are defending, the hope which we are defending, is expressed week in and week out through going through the catechism, through hearing the word proclaimed, through seeing the means of grace displayed and administered to you every so often. week in and week out as the word is proclaimed, as the sacraments are administered. This is important and it conditions us and conditions our learning so that we are ready to give a defense that we know what we believe and why we believe it. So finally, let us look at verse 17. here where we see it is better to suffer. He concludes this passage, Peter concludes this passage with a hard saying in verse 17. For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. As I said earlier, this verse kind of encapsulates this idea of the upside-down nature of the kingdom of God, right? Where the last are first, where it is better to suffer where you're blessed if you're persecuted, where you're blessed if you're poor in spirit, where you're blessed when you're meek and a peacemaker. Our culture kind of looks down on meekness, looks down on peacemakers, looks down on those who don't appear strong in the world's way of thinking. But again, that is the upside down nature of the kingdom of God. It is better to suffer for doing good than for evil. That word better, it's a comparison. It's exactly what you see here. It is better for us. It is better for God's glory that if we suffer for doing good than for doing evil. Again, this idea of the cruciform life, the cross-shaped life. It is a life that sees that the road to glory goes through suffering. That the road to exaltation goes through humiliation. It is the road that Christ himself trod, right? We saw this earlier in Hebrews 12, right? For the joy that was set before him, Christ endured the cross, despised the shame. He saw that the crown came through the cross. Before he had the golden crown, he had to wear the crown of thorns. Now, here we see that if it is the will of God that we should suffer for doing good, we are blessed. That doing good, blessing instead of reviling, that good is giving a reason for the hope that is within us, rather than doing evil. Looking ahead again to 1 Peter 4, we looked at some of this a little bit earlier. And in verse 14, again, he says, if you are reproached for the name of Christ, I mean, as I said, Peter kind of repeats himself here in verse 14 of chapter four, if you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you for the spirit of glory. And if God rests upon you on their part, he is blasphemed, but on your part, he is glorified. But then verse 16, 15, I should say, but let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people's matters. Verse 16, yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glory God in this matter. And this echoes the theme that we see here in chapter 3, verse 17. It is better to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. You get no brownie points if you suffer for being a jerk in this world. Okay? I'm sorry. There's just no brownie points for being a jerk in this world. Again, this idea of cage-stage Christian. If you are a Christian out there and you think that it is your job to make other people look bad and you look good, you are not. And then you suffer for that. You are suffering for doing evil and not doing good. It is better for you to suffer for doing good. Again, remember, we give that hope, the reason for our hope with meekness and fear, having a good conscience, so that when people still defile us for doing evil, they will be ashamed for their words. It is not so much God's will that his people suffer, it is his will that if suffering does come, that we do so for doing good, that we do so by sanctifying the Lord God in our hearts, being ready to give a defense. Beloved, no one likes suffering, but that is the life of a sojourner in exile. Again, chapter four, verse 12, do not be surprised Do not think a strange thing concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you as though something strange has happened to you. When you live as a soldier in exile in this world and suffering comes upon you, it should not come as a surprise. It should not come as a surprise. That's what Peter is getting at here. No one likes suffering, but that is the life of a soldier in exile. God does not will our suffering, but He does will the use of it for His glory and for our good. Joseph's life of suffering in Genesis, when he was treated badly by his brothers and sold into slavery, and then treated badly by Potiphar's wife, and then forgotten by the baker, and suffering in trial and in prison for so many years of his life, at the end of it all, recognizes the hand of God's providence in all of it when he says, you, to his brother speaking, he says, you guys meant to do me harm. You meant to cause me suffering and pain. Yet God overruled your evil intent so that good would come out of it. The evil that happens in this world, the suffering that we undergo as Christians doing good and being ready to give a defense serves the purpose of our good and God's glory. We are blessed if we suffer and God is glorified when we suffer for doing good. That's why Paul can say in Romans 8, 28, that all things work together for our good, for those who are called according to the purposes of Christ. And of course, again, Jesus being the ultimate example of the worst evil being committed on God's holy and perfect son, working out the best good that we could ever hope for, which we will celebrate in a moment, which is his broken body and his shed blood for the forgiveness of our sins. I like this line here from Martin Luther. He wrote this in thinking about this verse. He says, go thou on in faith and love. If the cross comes, take it up. If it comes not, do not seek it. If the cross comes, take it up. If it does not come, do not seek it. As Christians, we are not to seek suffering in this world. When Peter says here, you're blessed if you suffer for righteousness' sake, it is not a call for us to go out and seek suffering. It is a call that says that if you do suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed. If the cross comes, as Luther says, take it up. If it does not come, do not seek it. Beloved, our lives as sojourners and exiles are to endure suffering through the hope of our salvation. Our incorruptible, undefiled, unfading inheritance helps us to endure suffering. I love how Peter puts it in chapter one, verse six, when he talks about the inheritance of the living hope that we have reserved for us, he says, in this, That is, the hope you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. That hope fuels our endurance through the suffering that we will face in this world as sojourners and exiles. And of course, in our current context, this will become probably necessary sooner than we think. As Christianity in this culture becomes more and more marginalized, it becomes ever more important then to know what we believe and why we believe it so that we can give a reason for the hope that is within us with meekness and fear. Now we must fight the urge to indulge the flesh and return evil for evil, because again, that is what we want to do, right? At least that's what I want to do sometimes when I'm insulted, is to sort of return that insult with a kind of a snarky response. We must resist this urge to defend our hope, not with meekness and fear, but with harshness and contempt. But the good news, beloved, is that Christ is always held forth as our example. We looked at, just briefly, kind of a recap, when we looked at verses 18 through 19 of chapter 2, when he talks about suffering in that context, and then he points and leads into how Christ is the example of how we should suffer. He's going to do so again, again, Lord willing, next week. Look at verse 18 of chapter 3. Coming out of verse 17, it is better if it is the will of God to suffer for doing good than for doing evil, for, here's the reason, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that's us, we're the unjust, he's the just, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit. That is our hope. that Christ suffered the just for the unjust. He is the example we follow. He is held forth as our chief shepherd. When we face suffering for our faith, we must put our eyes on Christ who suffered for our sins and who is the ground of our hope. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Again, we see here this tough passage in which we are called, if need be, to suffer for doing good, that we must do so ready to give a defense for the hope that is within us, the hope which is our living hope that is grounded upon the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. O Lord, help us to do so with meekness and fear. Help us, Lord, to not return reviling for reviling, but to sanctify you, Lord, in our hearts. Help us, Lord, to be ready to give a defense. Help us, Lord, to know what we believe and why we believe it. And help us, Lord, to meet the challenges that may come upon us. perhaps sooner than we think, and do so, Lord, with our eyes firmly fixed on you, our North Star, our guiding light, the one who is the way, the truth, and the life. And now, Lord, as we get ready to celebrate, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, I pray, O Lord, that as we do so, we will be nourished in body and in soul, remembering the forgiveness of sins that we have through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.