Following Christ in a Hostile World

Following Christ in a Hostile World

“Following Christ in a Hostile World”
(1 Peter 2:11-12)
Series: Strength Through Adversity (1Peter)

Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD

Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson

Take your Bibles and join me in 2 Peter, chapter 2 (page 815; YouVersion).

If you’re visiting with us we are in a series of messages in 1 Peter.  We are studying this book verse-by-verse because that’s the way it was written and, therefore, we’re more likely to get at the meaning of the truths when we study it this way and preach and teach it this way.  We left off last time at verse 10 so we will pick up at verse 11.

And what we have this morning are two verses–verses 11 and 12–that introduce a new section of material in 1 Peter.  This new section of material is about living out the Christian life, living our lives before a watching world in such a way that our lives point people to the glory of God.  Listen for that as I read these two verses.

Please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.

11 Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul,
12 having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.

Pray.

Introduction:

This morning we’re going to be talking about, “Following Christ in a Hostile World.”  The New Testament teaches that the Christian faith is a faith lived out in and among an anti-Christian wold.  This should not surprise us.  Nor should we be swayed by any suggestions or notions to the contrary.

Many of you know that J.I. Packer wrote an excellent book some years ago that continues to influence and shape evangelical thinking in positive ways.  It is the book Knowing God.  In one section of his book Packer warns about contemporary preaching and teaching and evangelizing that gives people the idea that the Christian life is a life without conflict or difficulty.  He warns that in our zeal to tell people how they can have victory over sin, death, and hell we may unwittingly paint an inaccurate picture of the Christian life.  He writes:

It is possible…to play down the rougher side of the Christian life—the daily chastening, the endless war with sin and Satan, the periodic walk in darkness [so] as to give the impression that normal Christian living is a perfect bed of roses, a state of affairs in which everything in the garden is lovely all the time, and problems no longer exist—or, if they come, they have only to be taken to the throne of grace, and they will melt away at once. This is to suggest that the world, the flesh, and the devil, will give a man no serious trouble once he is a Christian; nor will his circumstances and personal relationships ever be a problem to himself. Such suggestions are mischievous, however, because they are false.”  J. I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1973, page 222).

The truth is we live in a hostile world, a world plagued by a virus called sin.  The New Testament teaches consistently that adversity, difficulty, and persecution are the norm of the Christian experience.  If we fail to teach this truth to new believers and if we fail to remind those who are believers already, then we will fail to produce strong, mature, truth-knowing and truth-living Christians.

Peter writes about following Christ in a hostile world.  In these two verses there are three actions every Christian should take this morning.  First, if you’re going to follow Christ in a hostile world:

1) Remember this World is Not Your Home (11)

It’s so easy to forget this!  I’ll bet few of got up this morning expecting today to be our last day.  Sounds morbid, right?  It’s so easy to think that we’re just going to go on living day after day after day in this world.  We work, we eat, we sleep, we buy houses, cars, we have savings, we invest.  We plan for the future when we will retire from our jobs, recline in our chairs, and play with our toys.  So Peter reminds us we are taking up residence here temporarily.  He says in verse 11:

11 Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims

He has said this before.  Do you remember where?  He used one of these words in the opening of this letter, verse 1, “To the ‘pilgrims.’”  To those who are sojourning through this temporary home called the world.  He alluded to this fact again in verse 17 of chapter 1 where he says, “Conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear.”

When I was a parole officer I had a lot of clients who referred to their residence as the place where they “stayed.”  I’d ask them, “Where do you live?”  They’d say, “I stay with my auntie,” or whomever.  At the time I couldn’t help but wonder if they said it this way because they moved so frequently.  But in another sense, this phrase aptly describes the Christian experience.  Our home is where we stay.  We will not be there forever.  And we will not be there forever because we will not be here forever.  This world is not our home.  We are “sojourners and pilgrims.”

As Calvin observes, we “are only guests in this world.”  Do you think of your existence this way?  Try thinking that way this week: “I am only a guest here.”  Try thinking that way next time you go to work, spend an evening, or make a purchase.

When we are traveling somewhere, we pack our bags as lightly as possible.  We take only the essentials.  We say, “Look, I’m only going to be there a few days so I don’t need a lot of stuff.”  What if we lived our lives this way?

When we remember that we are “sojourners and pilgrims” we are less likely to indulge in what Peter calls the “fleshly lusts which war against the soul.”  See that in verse 11, there at the end of the verse?  Peter says:

11…abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul,

We battle in this hostile world.  We battle the “fleshly lusts which war against [our] soul.”  What are the “fleshly lusts” or “fleshly desires” that war against our souls?  The Apostle Paul spoke of the same kind of thing in Galatians 5.  Listen to Galatians 5:19-21:

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,
20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Those are a few of the fleshly lusts which war against our soul, but there are others.  In fact it is safe to say that any desire that competes for Christ is a wrong desire.  Any desire we have–even good desires–when they compete for our desire for Christ, they they are wrong desires.

Maybe this encourages some of us.  Christians are not exempt from a pull of the flesh.  Just because you have the Holy Spirit within you doesn’t mean you won’t battle temptation and wrong desires.  There’s nothing strange about you, Christians battle.

The word, “abstain,” there means, “to hold oneself constantly back from.”  The grammar is, “Continually” do this, constantly hold yourself back from, continually abstain.  Continually fight the desires that war against our souls by competing for our desire and love for Christ.

This may be why Peter addresses Christians in verse 11 by the term, “Beloved.”  First word there. That word reminds Christians that they are beloved of God.  It’s not that Peter is saying that Christians are his beloved, Peter’s beloved.  It is that Peter is calling Christians, His beloved, God’s beloved, beloved of God.  Remember last week–verses 9-10?–“His own special people,” the “people of God” (1 Peter 2:9-10).

Christian, God possess you.  God loves you.  He has saved you.  You have tasted of the Lord that He is good.  Remember He is your chief desire, your supreme love and treasure.  Remember this and it will help you to “abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.”  And remember this world is not your home.  You are a temporary resident.

Zane Pratt is our guest speaker this evening from Southern Seminary.  He served as a missionary in Central Asia for 20 years, reaching out to Muslims in regions extremely resistant to the Gospel.  One of the keys to being missional in dangerous areas, he notes, is remembering your temporary status in this world and remembering your chief desire in Christ.

In this book edited by a friend of mine at Southeastern Seminary, Theology and Practice of Mission, Pratt writes this, “For the sake of real treasure, the believer is willing to let go of lesser things like possessions, temporal comfort and security, or even his life. The point is not what you lose. The point is the surpassing value of what you gain.”
He adds:

We need to ask, does my understanding and appreciation of God and his gospel free me from fear and anxiety about my needs and desires in this life, the things that quickly tie up my resources in lesser pursuits? Or am I still continually consumed by a need to establish myself in a world that won’t last and for which I wasn’t made?

Remember this world is not your home.  Secondly, if we’re going to follow Christ in a hostile world, we must:

2) Expect Hostility from Unbelievers (12)

Expect it.  It will happen.  Unbelievers will speak against you.  Period.  Verse 12:

12 having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles (unbelievers), that when they speak against you as evildoers…

Peter doesn’t say, “if” they speak against you, but “when” they speak against you as evildoers.  It will happen.  Don’t be surprised when unbelievers speak against you.

Really.  Stop being surprised by this and remember how many of us used to do the same thing.  What else would you expect?

I think it’s helpful to look forward a couple chapters to chapter 4 where Peter says something similar:

1 Peter 4:3-4, “For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. 4 In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you.”

Unbelievers are like, “Hey, why don’t you do this stuff?!  Everyone else is doing it!  Come on, it’s okay!”  So when you refrain from doing these things–young people–they speak against you like you’re an evil doer.  But you’re not an evil doer, you’re a lover of Christ, you love the One who loves you first.

Now by the way, note that it’s not just that people will speak against us as evildoers.  We are not necessarily in God’s will when unbelievers speak against us as evildoers.  If we are arrogant Christians, unbelievers speak against us because we are arrogant.  If we do not respect our unbelieving supervisors and unbelieving co-workers, they will speak against us because we are being disrespectful.

So don’t go around all “high and mighty” because you were preaching at others in the break room and your boss told you once again to tone it down.  And you say, “Well, I’m just suffering for Christ.”  No, you’re not.  The reason you’re being rebuked by your boss is because you are insubordinate and fail to follow instructions.  We’re not necessarily in God’s will when unbelievers speak against us as evildoers.

Peter says in the first part of verse 12 that our conduct is to be “honorable among the Gentiles, (the unbelievers).”  He’s talking about when unbelievers speak against us simply because we are Christians.  Our behavior is not the problem.  It is our Lord they are opposing.

Our behavior, on the other hand, is beyond reproach.  That doesn’t mean we’re perfect.  It means, rather, that unbelievers know that we love the Lord and that we live for the Lord.  They see that.

So note carefully what Peter goes on to say.  It is while unbelievers speak against us, or when unbelievers speak against us as evildoers they will also:

…by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.

Our holy living, our consistently Christian behavior, has an evangelistic effect.  It is by observing our good works that unbelievers are drawn to Christ.  They will–last part of verse 12–“glorify God in the day of visitation.”

That phrase, “the day of visitation” in this context, conveys the sense of, “the day God visits them with His grace,” the day God stoops down and turns the light on that they may see.  The day of visitation is the day when God calls a person out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).

So our holy living causes unbelievers to be drawn to Christ. There is a paradox here.  Unbelievers slander Christians but also, at the same time, are drawn to Christ because of the good works of the Christian.  There is at once in the unbeliever slander in his tongue and conviction in his heart.

Unbelievers speak against Christians and, at the same time, unbelievers are drawn to Christ because of the consistent holiness of the very ones against whom they speak!

Just as it was with Christ.  People spoke against Him and at once were drawn to Him.  The thief on the cross first railed against Christ and was–at the same time–drawn to Christ to believe in Him.  Why?  Because there was something different about Christ.  And there should be something different about those who follow Christ.  God uses this behavior and by way of God’s Holy Spirit God works through this holy behavior to draw souls to His side.  So the third action is:

3) Live so your Behavior Points People to Christ (12)

Again, verse 12:

12 having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles (unbelievers), that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may (at the same time), by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.

So godly behavior is not just for our benefit, but for the benefit of others.  We live to set the example for what it means to be wholly devoted to God.  Remember that from last week?  What does it mean to be holy?  It means to “be wholly God’s.”  Holiness is to be wholly God’s, wholly devoted to Him.  When we are holy this way, unbelievers take note.  They see that we are different and they are often drawn to Christ because of that difference.  They want what we have.

It’s much like what Jesus said in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Godly behavior is not just for our benefit, but for the benefit of others.  Paul said in:

Philippians 2:14-15, “Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.”

God wants to use you as a light that shines in the darkness.  Godly behavior is not just for your benefit, but for the benefit of others.

So we’ll watch our behavior.  We’ll watch what we eat and we’ll watch what we drink.  We’ll do things differently at the party.  We’ll do things differently at work.  We’ll do things differently at school.  People are often drawn to Jesus because they see that we truly love Him.
So we cannot overemphasize this.  The way to follow Christ in a hostile world, the way to live before unbelievers who disagree with our Christian faith is not to get in heated arguments with them.  Nor does Peter say, “Defend yourself,” or, “When you’re wronged, get petitions together,” or, “form political coalitions,” or, “Insist people say, ‘Merry Christmas,’” or whatever.

No, Peter simply says, “Live so your behavior points people to Christ.”  Be winsome and engaging.  No, not everyone will be drawn to Christ by your actions, but many will.

You will succeed far more in your evangelistic outreach than I ever will in preaching from the pulpit.  It is the way Christians live their daily lives that draws people to God that they might believe the Gospel.

So, in the words of one commentator, “Don’t write off people because they misunderstand Christianity; instead, show them Christ by your life. The day may come when those who criticize you will praise God with you (Life Application Study Bible).”

Stand for prayer.

 

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