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.—1 Peter 3:13–16

Introduction

As we wrap up this series on evangelism let me recap where we have been and then preview where we’ll go today. First, Pastor David reminded us that Jesus is our Judge, Savior, Second Adam, and Better Mediator. Last week, Bruce Power told us that we are to go out as sheep amongst wolves to rescue other lost sheep. There are great threats. But, there are greater promises in Christ. He reminded us that there are Christians being killed all over the world. And here in our own country, there is a cultural tide that will threaten to dismantle Christian businesses and families and even bring about jail and other consequences for Christians who stand against sinful policies. Thus, the call is to trust the Savior whom Pastor David reminded us of so that we can trust his promises and go out as Bruce called us.

This is a timely sermon and series because many of us will naturally be going out as the holiday season approaches. We will go out to family gatherings, work gatherings, and get together with old friends. Many of them will not share our gospel convictions. Will we speak Christ into their opinions and pain? Or will we fear the dirty looks and awkward silences that may come and simply say nothing at all?

This text had made me realize that if I’m not speaking Christ, it’s because he’s not Lord in my heart. Peter will not let us off the hook.

This passage addresses verbal abuse from others, yet it also hints at physical suffering. If we are not ready to handle a raised eyebrow from a family member, what will happen when being called a bigot for our belief in the gospel becomes jail-time or physical abuse? Mack Stiles, an international worker for Intervarsity, was at the Desiring God Conference last year and said something that pricked my conscience and has stuck with me. In most parts of the world, being a Christian means you have to fear the raised fist, but in America we tend to be so timid that we fear the raised eyebrow. So, my hope is that this passage of Scripture will help prepare you for the raised eyebrow this holiday season and also for stronger persecution to come in the not so distant future. May God be pleased to glorify himself in our hearts today!

There will be three points to this message: 1) The Suffering of Evangelism, 2) The Source of Evangelism, 3) and The Story of Evangelism. Suffering, Source, and Story. 

1. The Suffering of Evangelism (vv. 13-16)

What kind of suffering can we expect? In verse 13 we see that there is an implicit threat of harm, though not an ultimate threat. In verse 14 we see that there will be suffering for those zealous for gospel good. Also in verse 14 we see that there will be temptation to fear and be troubled, probably because of the harm and suffering. In verse 16 we see there will be people slandering and threatening us. Harm, suffering, fear, trouble, slander, and threats. And this is not the only place we see this. Peter starts his letter this way. Peter says we rejoice in our salvation even though

Now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.—1 Peter 1:6-7

We are expected, as those who have received the gospel of Christ, to go through trials and tests by fire. So, Peter recognizes that there is going to be real temptation to be scared and to run away from the truth because it’s just too hard. It costs too much. That’s why Peter reminds them that their faith is more precious than gold. The Christians Peter was writing to were losing their livelihood, becoming poor and persecuted for their faith in Jesus.

People threaten. People slander. Isn’t this exactly what we face, even in the context of family or work gatherings? If you’re against homosexual marriage, it means to most that you must hate homosexuals and be so stupid that they don’t want to talk to you about anything else of any substance. If you care about the Sanctity of Life, you must not understand science or a person’s right to be happy. You’re stupid, and they don’t talk to you about anything else. In a culture shouting for tolerance, the one view not tolerated is the Christian view. This happens in family contexts. It happens in business contexts. We’ve all been there. You share your opinion and talk about the gospel, and suddenly one of two things happens. 1) There is someone there who will verbally tell you why you’re ignorant, or 2) The conversation stops, and there's silence, but you know what they are thinking.

Perhaps we’ve experienced this enough, and we’re scared to speak up anymore. We’re scared what people might think, scared what relationships we might make more awkward, scared people might not want to talk to us again? We shrink back into a shell and tell ourselves that we will “walk through open doors” when they become obvious, too often these excuses become a justification for our silence.

Peter knew these threats and fears were real. They are intense. I’m not saying it’s easy. In fact, I’m saying quite the opposite. This kind of slander is deeply hurtful. It can wound us and cause us to retreat. If certain people think certain things about us, it can threaten not just what they think about us, but perhaps who will associate with us, or who we can do business with, or eventually perhaps if we will go to jail. There are strong reasons to fear. Peter knows this, and thus in verse 15 he begins to give us strong medicine to help us fight the infection of fear of the world.

2. The Source of Evangelism (v. 15a)

Set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts

Notice that this is the cure to fear. “Do not fear or be troubled but set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts.” So, somehow to set apart Christ as Lord in our hearts helps us not to fear. What does this phrase mean?

The word used for “set apart” is the same word we use for sanctification. It’s the idea of making something holy or separate. So, how do we sanctify Christ? This verb is the same one used in Matthew 6:9, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name.”  The hallowing has the same idea in Matthew as “set apart” does in 1 Peter. Christ is to be hallowed. Christ is to be glorified. In 1 Peter, hallowing Christ means treasuring him and fearing him. First, treasure him:

Now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.—1 Peter 1:6-7

Second, fear him: We get an idea of what this means when see that in verses 14-15, Peter was actually referencing a passage in Isaiah 8.

Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.—Isaiah 8:12-14

In Isaiah 7-8, Judah is being threatened by the Northern Kingdoms. Yet God has promised to preserve them. Thus, Judah is called not to fear their enemies’ threats but to fear God. 

So, how is Peter applying this text from Isaiah? Just as Judah was to fear Yahweh alone, Peter is telling the Christians that they are to fear Christ alone instead of their enemies. Just as Judah was to trust in the absolute supremacy and authority of Yahweh, Peter is telling Christians to set apart Jesus as the supreme and authoritative Lord.

When we say “Hallowed be Thy Name,” we mean God’s name above every other name. We mean God’s name and no other name. It is the same idea here. If your heart had a scale to weigh your desires, would Jesus weight the most? 

Jesus reigns. Jesus rules. Jesus holds all things together by the Word of his power. Jesus lived the perfect life we couldn’t live, died the death we deserved to die, and then was raised by God to show that he was indeed the Messiah. And, because he did that, God has bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that he is Lord!

Jesus must reign as our highest treasure and highest fear. Jesus must be a higher treasure than money, success, acceptance, friends, and even family. And, Jesus must be a higher fear than any earthly fear of slander, threats, and suffering! If Jesus is our treasure, we will most fear losing him. What is most precious will dictate what you most fear losing. 

Also, notice that the first step to bold evangelism is not a certain program, technique, or training, though those are helpful. The first step to bold evangelism is not outward but inward. The first step is doing the heart work of setting apart Jesus as Lord in your heart—making sure Jesus is on the throne of your heart.

So ask yourself, who do you treasure? Who do you ultimately fear? 1 Peter 1:17 says, “If you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile.” We are to fear God. And the Father will judge you based on his Son.

Therefore, the foundational step in evangelism is hallowing the Lord Jesus in your heart. It is grasping onto the truth that Jesus runs the universe. This is not a psychological game. What you think about Jesus determines everything. It is reality. Those who believe on Jesus as Savior and Lord will stand, and those who spurn him will fall.

Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.—1 Peter 2:6-8

Our greatest fear should be failing to hallow Jesus, not the raised eyebrow of family, jail time, or even death! Therefore, the cure to fear of the world is the heart work to lift high Jesus as Lord in our hearts as our treasure and our fear. Jesus is more precious and more powerful than anything the world can promise or threaten!

3. The Story of Evangelism (vv. 15b-16)

So, we’ve seen the suffering of evangelism and the source of evangelism. Now Peter wants to show a close connection between hallowing Jesus in our hearts and heralding Jesus with our words and our works. In fact, the connection is so close that it’s safe to say that if we are truly hallowing Jesus in our hearts, we will certainly herald Jesus with our words and works.

Part 1 of the Story: Our Words

Always ready to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

You see, Peter knows if we fear the suffering and slander of the world, we will shut up about the gospel. But if we set apart Christ as Lord in our hearts, we will speak up! Do you see the connection between hallowing Jesus in our hearts and the hope that is in us? The inward work of hallowing Jesus means that we carry our hope around inside of us at all times. So, if Jesus is hallowed in your heart, Jesus will spill out. If fear is hallowed in your heart, fear will spill out.

The word for “reason” in this verse is always used in the New Testament as a response to an accusation. It’s used several times when Paul is before the authorities in Acts. Threatening questions can be unsettling, unless Jesus is so treasured and feared as your hope that your heart simply overflows. The gospel of Matthew makes this connection.

Matthew 6:21 says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” So, if Christ is your treasure, your heart will be set on him. And then listen to Matthew 12:34-35, where Jesus addresses the Pharisees blaspheming the Holy Spirit: “You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.”

Your heart is set on what you treasure, and you speak out of what you treasure in your heart! This is exactly what Peter is getting at. If you treasure and fear Christ in your heart as Lord, then when someone brings a question to you, your heart will always be ready to overflow with hope.

This hope will look very strange to the world. You see, most of the world hopes in circumstances. They hope in a promotion. They hope in a politician. They hope in policies. They hope in sinful pleasure. They hope in money. They hope in a pain-free, comfortable life. They hope in friends and family. And when those things fall or fail, their hope is shattered. And so when things go wrong for the Christian, they can’t understand why Christians continue to have hope, especially in suffering. But as Christians, our hope is not in our circumstances but in a person!

Peter uses this word for hope three other times in his letter. Listen to the object of hope:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.—1 Peter 1:3

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.—1 Peter 1:13

Through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.—1 Peter 1:21

So, our hope is in God through the work of the person of Christ. We hope in God because he has raised Jesus from the dead and showed him to be our Savior and Lord. We hope in God because there is grace coming to us when Jesus comes back that will make the suffering of the present time look like a raindrop of pain in an ocean of mercy. We hope in God because Jesus has died and been raised again taking our sin, securing our righteousness and promising us eternity with him where there is fullness of joy and pleasure forevermore.

Bethlehem, circumstances don’t change these realities. Suffering doesn’t change these realities. So, Christians hope even in the worst of times, and this does not make sense to the outside world. In fact, it causes them to ask questions.

A heart hallowing Christ as Lord will always be ready to answer any question with overflowing hope in God.

How should we speak this hope? It says we speak this hope with, “gentleness and respect.” So first, when people say we’re ignorant and stupid, we don’t respond by saying, “No, you are!” We don’t thumb our noses in superiority as Christians. That goes against everything we know about grace. What do we have that we have not received by grace? Instead, we answer truthfully and humbly. We speak the truth in love. If someone says you’re ignorant to call homosexuality a sin, it will not glorify Christ to get angry and yell at them. Rather, we plead with them for the sake of the gospel because we care for their souls and care about the glory of God in all issues. We’re pleading with you because we love you—we don’t want you to be deceived and go to hell—not because we hate you! 2 Timothy 2:25 says this very thing, “Correct your opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.” We want them to repent and give glory to God. So we’re gentle.

Second, it says with respect. I prefer the translation “fear.” This is the same word used for fear in verse 14. So we are not to fear those who will cause suffering (v.14), but we are to share our hope with fear (v.16). Is this a contradiction? No! The fear in verse 16 is fear of God. We are gentle towards those accusing us, hoping to win them over, but the whole time we are talking, we are mindful to speak the truth about our God because we fear him more than we fear them.

You see, the response to most conflict is fight or flight. Our Christian hope in the person of Jesus Christ allows us to neither run nor fight but stand and share.

Those who have Christ set apart in their hearts as Lord will overflow with hope in a spirit of gentleness towards those asking and fear towards God.

Part 2 of the Story: Our Works

There is one more part of the story we tell that Peter reminds us of—our works. Peter says in verse 16, “having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.”

So, very quickly, notice the word "good." We see that we are to have a good conscience and good behavior. Peter’s point is not perfection but a life living in light of the hope of the gospel.

A person whose heart is hallowing Christ as Lord will overflow with hopeful words and hopeful works. Peter calls believers to be “holy as God is holy” (1:16) because they have been “ransomed from the futile ways inherited from [their] forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” (1:18-19). So, believers are purchased and empowered through the gospel to live holy lives from a gospel hope. We speak words of hope, and we live in light of that hope! 

And we do this so that those who would persecute us would eventually have to deal with the truth. If they say we are hateful people, do we live lives of hate? If we are weak people using the gospel as a crutch, do we live weak lives? You see, as we speak words of hope and live lives of hope with Christ set apart as Lord, in the end, unbelievers will have to face the dissonance of their slander and the reality of our lives.

One choice in this dissonance is to see Jesus and be saved. This is our desire, that some may be saved! However, the other choice is reject it and eventually be put to shame on the last day. When believers live lives of hope that accord with words of hope in Jesus, unbelievers have no excuses left to miss the truth about Jesus and be put to shame forever. Everything hinges on what you do with Jesus. O, how important it is that he is hallowed in our hearts for us and for those we interact with!

So, we hallow Christ as Lord in our hearts, which causes hopeful words and hopeful works to spill over, and we do it all with gentleness to our accusers and fear of God in our hearts, hoping some might repent!

Application

1. Bethlehem, Treasure Before You Talk

As you approach the holidays, will you commit to more of Christ through the Word and prayer? I know it sounds simple. Will you open your Bibles to know him more deeply and worship him more fully? Will you get on your knees to beg him to help you hallow him in your heart? Ask him to help you fear him instead of the world. Ask him to glorify his name by using you to speak the gospel.

2. Bethlehem, Herald Your Hope

At family gatherings, work gatherings, and any other interactions you have, will you prepare yourself for the raised eyebrow, knowing many of our brothers and sisters all over the world must fear the raised fist? You don’t need a perfect explanation or a perfect presentation. You need a heart so happy and confident in Jesus that hope in him is what naturally overflows. Don’t be intimidated but trust that Jesus is Lord. It is your job to speak up and resist shutting up.

3. Bethlehem, Walk in a Manner Worthy

Would you ask God to reveal sinful behavior and thoughts? As you set him apart as Lord, ask him to reveal places where you are treasuring worldly things more than the gospel and fearing suffering or slander more than you fear him. Where is this causing sinful works that don’t glorify Christ as Lord?

4. Bethlehem, Don’t Despise Suffering

So often, the way we suffer is the way doors are opened to proclaim the hope that we have. It is a hope that is not in circumstances but is in a sovereign God and saving Lord. It makes no sense to unbelievers when Christians are attacked and suffer that their response is a stronger hope in God and a gentle answer. That’s not normal. Most people don’t respond to persecution with gentleness! But the Christian hope can do this because it’s a hope not shaped by circumstances but by a person, Jesus. It is a hope that is not shaken but believes that the gospel is stronger.

Conclusion

As the holidays approach, and we think about the family we’ll see, the work events we’ll go to, and the general world we live in, let’s be honest with ourselves. What do we treasure? What do we fear? Have we been dominated by fears that have caused us to shut up? Have we had too many people shut down when we talk about the gospel that we are now justifying our silence? Peter has shown us that a silent mouth points towards a hopeless heart.

So, will you do the heart work of setting Jesus apart as Lord? Will you treasure him above all things? Will you fear him above the fear that comes with persecution? Our hope is in him. And when we wonder if Jesus is with us in our suffering, may God help us remember our Savior that suffered on our behalf. Listen to Peter’s call for believers to suffer:

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.—1 Peter 2:21-24

As we remember our suffering Lord, may our hearts hallow his name and overflow with words and works of hope in Jesus, so that we might follow his example, and thus God might grant many friends, family, and coworkers to bow the knee to Jesus before it’s too late to the glory of God.

Prayer

O God, we long for you to help us hallow Jesus in our hearts so that we might herald him with our words and works! You are the God of this city! We believe greater things are to come in the South suburbs! Jesus is stronger! May his Name be lifted higher in the South Suburbs and beyond! And may a loud cry come from the people sitting in this room right now. It’s in the name of Jesus, our Savior and Lord that we pray. Amen.