Sunday, January 30, 2011

In Light of the Blessing

This morning I had the opportunity to worship with God's people at Christ's Covenant Church in Winona Lake, Indiana. The pastor was sharing from God's Word found in the third chapter of 1 Peter.

There is much to commend from the sermon but I just want to share one facet that I have found of great value. Below is the text.

1 Peter 3:13-17;
"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 share. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil."

Looking at the opening verse we can see what seems on the surface to be a simple straight forward, if not silly, question. Why would anyone cause harm to a person who does what is good? We all like people who do good things. When people give you a gift, it is a nice gesture, and we consider the act of giving the gift to be a good act. Going and cleaning up the gulf or not littering are all "good."

Our idea of good can also easily encompass the idea of benefit. In the sermon this morning, this is where I thought Pastor Larry did a great job. Sometimes benefit comes through a deceitful act. The example made this morning was an employee being pressured to fudge on tax reporting in order for his employer to avoid entering into a new tax bracket, potentially costing a loss of large profits. In the light of business larger amounts of profit is a good thing.

However, as Christians our definition of good comes from a much higher standard. In the preceding verses Peter writes, "For whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good let him seek peace and pursue it." I think we could easily assume that one who keeps themselves from speaking deceit will surely pursue integrity in all its forms.

I believe that it is crystal clear, that on this side of Jesus' second coming, Christians will cost a perceived good by doing and pursuing what is right in the eyes of God. This can make us extremely unpopular. We may be shunned for our faith, lose a promotion, left off a guest list, or scrutinized for any form of dishonesty.

Going back to our verse. "Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? The answer; ultimately, nobody. The verses go on saying in verse 14-15, "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."

This is great. Compare what Peter says here with what is written in Isaiah 8:13. "But the Lord of host, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread." Peter has taken what was written about God in the Old Testament and applied it to Jesus. He is in control. Like Stephen in the book of Acts, as he was being stoned saw our risen Lord standing, we need to train ourselves to look beyond our circumstances, or our persecutors, and look to our glorious Lord.

Lastly, Pastor Larry said something beautifully hard. He said that this passage should cause us to cry out for those who persecute us because if they do not repent and turn to Jesus they will face an eternity of hell.

As we rejoice in knowing that our lives are in the hands of a loving Savior let us pray that God will shine the light of the gospel through our words and lives that the world and those that hate us may know the hope that we profess.

If you want to check out the rest of the sermon, I would encourage you to do so. It was a good one. Here is the link: www.christscovenant.org/sermons/

No comments: