DEFENDERS OF THE
FAITH
**Note: The passage in the bulletin and on the schedule
for this morning includes 3:13-22. For the sake of practicality and clarity we
will look only at verses 13-17. Martin Luther said of this passage (18-22):
“This is a strange text and certainly a more obscure passage than any other
passage in the NT. I still do not know for sure what the apostle meant.” I
encourage you to go to my blog to read a few notes on the passage as a way of
compensating your curiosity about the text. Go to kemc.net and Shepherd’s
Shire, or http://klassenstein-klassenstein.blogspot.ca/.
Radical Muslims in France took up weapons recently to
defend the prophet Mohammed. They killed several people in response to a
satirical magazine’s depiction of their prophet in a cartoon. Muslims have a
very strict policy that no one is to make any kind of image or caricature of
Mohammed. The majority of Muslims will not kill over such a blasphemy but some
fringe radicals will take vengeance, as we saw in Paris.
As I
read the news reports on this tragic incident, it dawned on me that this sort
of reaction does not endear anyone to Islam. Moreover, if Allah and Mohammed
need defending, what kind of God and prophet are they? A God that needs
defending in this manner appears rather weak. Granted, the Muslim is concerned
about holiness and reverence for their religion. But the question remains: Does
Allah need defending?
This
week I also read in Judges 6 how the Lord told Gideon to tear down an altar to
Baal. The people in his village woke up to find this altar broken and became
angry wanting to kill Gideon. But Gideon’s father replied, “If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks
down his altar,” (Judges 6:31). It was a wise response that probably saved
Gideon’s life and spoke to the potency of the gods.
As
Christians, we confess the Shema of Deut. 6:4ff, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our
God, the LORD is one.” There is one God and Yahweh is his name. And Jesus is
His Son. That is our profession of faith. That profession finds resistance even
in our North American society.
The
question for us is this: When Christ is slandered or mocked in our presence, do
we need to defend Him? When our faith is ridiculed and demeaned do we need to
respond? If so, how? How do we defend our faith and our God in such a way that
people are blessed, as we talked about last week? I propose to you that the best witness in a world that resists
Christ combines good behavior with
thoughtful words under Christ’s lordship.
1. When Christians Face Resistance
a) Will anyone
harm you for doing good? Peter brings us once again to the theme of
suffering for Christ. He asks a question that seemingly needs no answer: “Who is going to harm you if you are eager
to do good?” (3:13). The answer is: no one.
As the
parallel passage in Romans 12 indicated, if you live as a good citizen and seek
peace with everyone, life should go well for you. Peter taught his readers to
submit to authorities, to slaves, and to unbelieving spouses with the hope that
excelling at these positions would bring others to Christ. Doing good for
others could not possibly bring suffering, could it?
b) Some will hurt
you for being “good” - Doing good
does not irritate people so much as being good. Peter implied that the answer
to his question was “no one.” No one would hurt you for doing good. But then
Peter continues and wrote about suffering for being righteous, “But even if you should suffer for what is
right you are blessed,” (3:14a).
“Peter
wants us to know suffering may come our way even when we are living as God
instructs us to live. Indeed, suffering may come our way because we are living godly lives. A number of evangelical
Christians fail to grasp this. They sincerely believe that if they follow the
divine principles of Scripture, they can be assured of a happy, trouble-free
life, a life of “prosperity.”Job’s friends made this same error. They assumed
Job’s prosperity was the result of his piety; when adversity overtook him, they
were certain he had done something wrong.”[i]
Unbelievers
may simply feel condemned in your presence knowing that you are a Christian. A
professional golfer was once invited to play a foursome with Jack Nicklaus,
Gerald Ford, Billy Graham (the evangelist). Someone asked the golfer what it
was like to play with Graham. The golfer let out a torrent of curses and said
in a disgusting manner, “I don’t need Billy Graham stuffing religion down my
throat.” His friend went after him and when the golfer had calmed down he
quietly asked him, “Was Billy a little rough on you out there?” The pro heaved
an embarrassed sigh and said, “No, he didn’t even mention religion. I just had
a bad round.”[ii]
Just
knowing you are a born-again, gospel-believing, Christ-centered individual will
set some people off. They will even try to trap you or make you stumble just to
satisfy themselves that you are not perfect.
c) Do not fear
them – If you suffer, suffer for doing what is right, Peter instructs. And
do not fear them. Peter quotes Isaiah, “Do
not fear their threats; do not be frightened,” (3:14b).
We can
imagine Peter echoing the words of Jesus as he reminds his readers of the basis
for our courage. Jesus said, “Do not be
afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid
of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell,” (Mt. 10:28).
A more
literal translation of Peter’s words would be, “Do not fear what they fear.” In
other words, don’t give in to the threats of your adversaries, their
intimidation. Fear the Lord, is Peter’s answer to fear. He says, “But in your hearts set apart Christ as
Lord,” (3:15a). Our stance in the face of resistance to our faith is to
fear God, or to honor Christ in our hearts. ]
Peter
speaks from experience. His concern is that we will allow fear to make us
silent or to take the edge off of our zeal for Christ. He himself was in that
position when he was under pressure during Christ’s trials. Three times, you
remember, he was pressed about his friendship with Jesus, and he allowed fear
to seize his heart and he denied Jesus. It is in those times, he now wrote,
that we must not allow fear to keep us from witnessing to the presence of
Christ in our hearts. Under pressure we may feel apologetic about the gospel
and try to soften for those who find it harsh. We have all been there, I
believe. Peter says, “Don’t fear what they fear.” Defend the gospel.
2. How Christians Present a Defense
a) Be prepared to
answer – So does defending the gospel mean running into CBC offices in
Winnipeg and setting off a bomb? Certainly not! Does our gospel need defending?
Yes and no. Defending the gospel is not what it sounds like.
Defending
the gospel, as Peter explained it, is making a reasonable response to our
opponents. “Always be prepared to give an answer…” The word “answer” is the
word apologia in Greek and is where
we get the word “apology” from. However, it does not mean apologizing, as in,
“I’m sorry I’m a Christian. Does that offend you? I’ll stop believing.” An
apology in the NT sense is giving a defense for your faith. C.S. Lewis was an
apologist, which means that he carefully explained in books and radio
broadcasts what it meant to be a Christian.
We need
to be apologists too. Brian Bell said that the tragedy of the modern church
today is that there are so many members who if they were asked could not
explain what they believe nor why they believe it.[iii]
Peter’s tense in his wording is that we should be “ready and waiting” for an
opportunity to explain the gospel.
I was tempted to give you the answer to those
questions so that you had an apology ready to give. But one writer said that if
we rely on scripts and prompts we are like the cultists who come to your door.
When I interrupted a Jehovah’s Witness one time to ask about some Scripture,
the person was flustered and thrown off. We have more than a script; we have
the scriptures. We have experienced the grace of God through the gospel and we
should be able to explain what we believe and why.
The
gospel message is simple: You need to tell a person what sin is and what it has
done in terms of alienating us from God. They need to know who Christ is and how
He bore our sin through His death and resurrection. And they need to know how
to accept God’s gift of eternal life and forgiveness through faith.
b) Be prepared to
answer anyone – Peter continued this thought saying, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you
to give the reason for the hope that you have,” (3:15b,c).
George
Whitefield, the 18th century evangelist, once said, “God forbid that
I should travel with anybody a quarter of an hour without speaking of Christ to
them.” That is a challenge for all of us (and I mean me too).
Sometimes
we think evangelism is telling people what they need to give up. We should be
telling them to seek first the kingdom of God, and then those bad habits will
seem repulsive to them in the light of what Christ offers them.
Secondly,
we think we need to defend the Bible. That’s like defending a lion! Just uncage
it and it will take care of itself. The basic problem of every person is the
same: He’s a sinner, alienated from God. He needs to know the freedom from sin
that the Bible speaks about.
c) Be gentle –
Peter is quick to add that our defense of the faith is not to be combative. “But do this with gentleness and respect,” (3:15d).
We are not arguing or debating with people who oppose our faith; this would not
be gentle. We are not called to win arguments, but to win lost souls to Christ.
Paul
counseled Timothy about his approach to unbelievers. Paul said, “And the Lord’s servant must not quarrel;
instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Those who
oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them
repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to
their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive
to do his will,” (2 Tim. 2:24-26).
Gentleness
is coupled here with instruction, which tells us once again that Christians
don’t need to be silent when faced with resistance, but we do need to be
gentle.
d) Be respectful
– Do we need to respect the beliefs and values of a person who is not a
Christian? Yes, we do not want to give the impression that we think they are
fools for believing in something else. But that’s not what respect means in
this context. “Respect” returns to the earlier encouragement to “set apart
Christ as Lord.” Respect can mean “fear” and fear is reserved for the Lord. In
a sense, Peter is telling his readers to mix love and truth together. As it
says in v. 18, “For Christ also suffered
once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was
put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit,” which is the core
doctrine of our faith. Peter did not shrink from that truth.
Sodium
is an extremely active element found naturally only in combined form; it always
links itself to another element. Chlorine, on the other hand, is the poisonous
gas that gives bleach its offensive odor. When sodium and chlorine are
combined, the result is sodium chloride - common table salt - the substance we
use to preserve meat and bring out its flavor.
Love and
truth can be like sodium and chlorine. Love without truth is flighty, sometimes
blind, willing to combine with various doctrines. On the other hand, truth by
itself can be offensive, sometimes even poisonous. Spoken without love, it can
turn people away from the gospel. When truth and love are combined in an
individual or a church, however, then we have what Jesus called "the salt
of the earth" and we’re able to preserve and bring out the beauty of our
faith.
e) Be consistent
– Walk the walk, and talk the talk. Nothing hurts the Christian testimony more
than inconsistency. If we preach the goodness of God we must also live it.
That’s
why Peter added, “…keeping a clear
conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in
Christ may be ashamed of their slander,” (3:16). We do not want to give
anyone cause to say, “Christians are hypocrites.” Of course we are, but we
don’t need to fuel that fire. We point to the Christ who is perfect and the
perfection that He will complete in us on the day He returns.
An
effective testimony requires a clear conscience regarding one’s personal
integrity before the Lord. We cannot explain the hope we have in Christ while
living in ways that contradict that hope. If anyone is offended by our
testimony, let it be because of the content of our message, that Jesus is Lord
and Savior, and not the manner in which we gave it.
Our good
behavior will nullify their criticisms. Your life will back up your words, and
our defense of the gospel will be effective.
Does our Gospel need defending? If we are talking about
arguing for the truth and marching in rallies to protest movies that depict
Christ in a negative way, then I would say “no.”
If we
are talking about taking the opportunity when we are ridiculed for our regular
church attendance, mocked for being Christian, slandered as “cheap” Mennonites,
or accused of being cliquish, yes we can defend the Gospel. We can take those
opportunities to ask questions (questions were a common tool of Jesus’ when he
wanted to make people think), and to correct misconceptions. Most importantly
these moments of “resistance” from hostile unbelievers are an opportunity to
speak of Christ’s sacrifice. Or at the very least, to show them that the love
of Christ lives in us.
Suffering
for Christ and being a Christian is to experience what you committed yourself
to in baptism. We were not only baptized into sharing his life, but also into
sharing his suffering and death. If we suffer in this world, wouldn’t it be a
privilege to suffer for loving Jesus?
My
challenge to you this week is to write out in just a few sentences what you
believe and why. If you want, you could write out a dialogue of what a person
you know might ask about your faith and how you might respond. Or you could
write out your own questions about our faith and try to answer them from
Scripture and from your experience. What I am asking you to do is write out
your own apology, your own defense of the gospel. I am calling on you to become
a defender of the gospel.
AMEN
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