Dan Herold | 1 Peter 3:15-22 | November 27, 2016
(Sermon begins at 2:04)
What do the men whose name’s I am about to list all have in common?
Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Caesar Augustus, Thomas Jefferson, General George S. Patton, Henry Ford, Walt Disney, Alexander the Great, and Winston Churchill.
So what do all these men have in common? A couple of things…first of all they were all excellent leaders. They all were able to capture the attention of the people they led, and organize and inspire them to accomplish great things. However, they all also have a second thing in common. All of these men, in spite of all their accomplishments, are now dead. Even though they held immense political and economic power each of them died. Nothing they could do could prevent that, nor was it able to bring them back after they had left this life. Some of those men’s names and legacies still live on today, but the fact remains that each of these men is no longer there to motivate, lead, or promise anything to anyone anymore.
In 1 Peter 3:15 Peter writes,
“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.”
Right there we are called upon to set Christ as Lord in our hearts. That means to make him number one. Peter calls on us to follow Christ. That doesn’t mean that we are told to do everything exactly as he did, although that’s not a bad goal to shoot for, but God knows we are sinful people and won’t ever be perfect on this side of heaven. What he is calling us to do is to live our lives in a way that reflects the fact that our sins are forgiven.
That’s what the second part of that verse is talking about. When Peter says,
“To always be prepared to give an answer for the hope that you have.”
He is expecting that we, as Christians, will be living lives that point to Christ. And when we do that people are going to ask about it—and that’s a perfect opportunity to share the message of salvation with someone who may not know their Savior.
A common question when you talk about leadership is, “What makes a good leader?” There are more answers to that question than we can count right now, but a common one is that they are able to inspire people, or give them hope. And it is hope that characterizes a life that has Christ as its leader.
So, let’s talk about that hope…What is it? How did we get it? And what does it mean? What does Peter want us to be ready to explain when someone asks about the hope we have—the hope that our leader gives us? Thankfully we don’t have to look too hard or too far because Peter explains what he means in the following verses—and what he writes is a beautiful demonstration of how God’s plan of Salvation is so simple and at the same time it ties into the entirety of Scripture.
Let’s start with verse 18 where Peter simply says,
In vitro fertilization (IVF) and other types of assisted reproductive Technology says about 12% of women seeking appalachianmagazine.com cialis for sale treatment for infertility have depleted ovarian reserves. I’ll say it again, levitra no prescription no striving for perfection, strive for small victories. It is a liquid drug and generic levitra online straight from the source hence gets dissolved in the bloodstream easily. Additional therapy for ED is vacuum constriction devices, which are placed on penile organ to cause suction of air, which helps improve blood circulation and curing the muscle tissues of the genital areas. viagra no prescription appalachianmagazine.com
“For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit.”
Jesus died once for all mankind in order to bring you to God. He physically died, but was made alive again by the Holy Spirit. And that is the simple core message of Christianity—in other words that is our hope—that Jesus died once for all people to take away their sins and on the third day after his death he rose from the dead.
But, what does that look like in practice? It can be easy for us to talk about our Savior and use words to describe what he has done for us, but Peter tells us that we have been called to live for Jesus. So what does a life that follows Jesus look like? Peter tells us about that too. He tells us what that sort of life looks like by taking us back to the Old Testament to a story we all heard in Sunday School and Vacation Bible School—Noah and the Ark.
According to what we can read in Genesis it was very obvious at Noah’s time who followed God and who didn’t. We are told that for the most part mankind had turned it’s back on God and in turn God did a couple of things. First, he limited their lifespan. Adam Lived to be 930 years old and before Noah’s time it wasn’t uncommon for a man to live several hundred years, but just before the flood God said that man’s life would now be limited to 120 years. But even a shorter life didn’t break mankind out of its sinful ways, so God decided he needed to destroy the earth to punish mankind for its sins.
But there was one family that was different. They were different from all the other families on earth because they followed the one true God…even though Noah hadn’t seen Jesus in person he had the promise of a Savior and he set Christ as Lord in his heart just like Peter encourages us to do. Do you know how we know that Noah did that? Not just because they Bible tells us he did. Think if you were alive at Noah’s time and you were his neighbor. I’m fairly certain you’d be able to tell he was different from everybody else, and you know how you could tell? By his actions!
If you came to church next Sunday and you saw me out in my front yard building an ark, you’d think I was a little different wouldn’t you? Now, until you came and asked me why I was building that ark you wouldn’t know why I was different—and that is why I want to always be prepared to give an answer for the hope that I have, because I never know when I’ll have an opportunity to tell someone about Jesus.
Noah had that opportunity too and he was prepared to give an answer as well. It would appear that maybe his sons and their families were the only people that he had an opportunity to share that answer with, but what a precious opportunity it was to share that message of salvation and also to save their earthly lives as well in the safety of the ark.
Now, we just took a huge jump back in Bible history from Peter writing in the mid first century way back over 2000 years to the flood. How are the two connected? Usually, we remember the flood for its destructive force. It literally destroyed the entire created world, both mankind and animals alike…except for 8 people. For those 8 people, the flood did the opposite—it saved them.
God made it clear that, as a God-fearing man, Noah lived in a hostile environment. So, when he opened up the heavens and water poured down for 40 days and 40 nights he wasn’t just destroying those who did evil, but he was rescuing his faithful followers from a wicked world. Peter points out that you and I are saved in a similar way. As God’s chosen people we also are living in a sinful and hostile world, but God has rescued us— and he has done it with water. Just like the flood waters of Noah’s day destroyed evil, the water of baptism washes away our sins and unites us with Christ. Peter says this baptismal water,
“Saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.”
So what does it mean to live as those whom Christ has called? It means to boldly live in our baptismal grace. That will play out differently for each of us since each of us has been blessed with unique talents and abilities. For Noah it played out by building an ark as he demonstrated his trust in God’s word. God wants us all to be ark builders—not that we each need to build a large ship, but he wants us to actively live our faith.
An unfortunate fact of history is that many early Christians were persecuted and even were put to death for their faith. If by some turn of events we found ourselves again living in a world where Christianity was outlawed, would there be enough evidence to convict you? I hope there is plenty for all of us! Because that means we all will have plenty of opportunities to give an answer for the hope that we have. To tell the world that just like Noah was saved by water we were too! That we were saved by the waters of baptism and joined together with our Savior Jesus Christ who rose from the dead to call us to live our lives for him. That is our hope—the hope which defines us as followers of Christ.
Amen.