Built for Hope: Turn it Around
1 Peter 3:8-9, 14-16; 4:12-13 (NIV)
Eric Henderson, Lead Pastor Green Lake
Following Jesus doesn’t promise us a life free from suffering but does invite us into redemptive responses to suffering that produce hope and blessing. Peter offers three we will look at today:
I. Remember…
a. The One Mind
b. The Spiritual House
c. The calling and the blessings
II. Living differently
a. Evil with blessings
b. Fear of people with fear of the Lord
c. The question with an answer for your hope
III. Rejoice!
a. In shared sufferings
b. You are not alone
Discussion Questions
Before questions, attempt to give the group a bit of a summary of the main points of the sermon and then choose a few questions that fit your group’s needs and style. We don’t intend for you to use all of these. Three to five questions may be a good number.
Begin by reading 1 Peter 3:8-8, 14-16; 4:12-13 aloud, taking turns reading the passages.
Pray over the group before beginning discussion.
1. Christians world wide live in persecution for their faith in Christ.
a. Have you ever felt persecuted for Christ?
b. Have you ever felt uncomfortable because you were a Christian?
2. Eric told a story of anger in traffic. Is there a time you felt angry & were able to “turn it around” (sermon title) and adjusted your response?
3. What is one phrase from the sermon or scripture that has stuck with you?
4. Attending church is a way to remember the values of the Kingdom of God.
a. What do you need to remember more often when in trial: one-mind, spiritual house, and/or calling and blessing?
5. What are some ways to bless an enemy?
6. What is your calling in Christ?
a. What are your gifts?
7. What gives you the strength to bless an enemy?
8. What does fear of the Lord mean to you?
9. Share the reason for the hope that you have?
10. Do you have an area of suffering we can share and pray about with you today?
Turn it Around
Series: Built for Hope
Scripture Reading: 1 Peter 3:8-9, 14-16; 4:12-13 (NIV)
Following Jesus doesn’t promise us a life free from suffering but does invite us into redemptive responses to suffering that produce hope and blessing. Peter offers three we will look at today:
Remember…
1. (The One Mind)
2. (The Spiritual House)
3. (The calling and the blessing)
Repay…
1. (Evil with blessing)
2. (Fear of people with fear of the Lord)
3. (The question with an answer for your hope)
Rejoice!
1. (In shared sufferings)
2. (You are not alone)
INTRODUCTION
Welcome everyone, glad to be together today. My name is Eric and I’m the lead Pastor here at Bethany Green Lake. If you’re visiting us today or checking us out online, you’re welcome here and we’d love to help you connect.
We are in the third week of our teaching series on the book of the Bible called 1 Peter, a letter written to followers of Jesus scattered throughout the Roman world. People facing persecution, isolation, increasingly at odds with society and the power structures of the day.
Though they were scattered, Peter wanted them to understand the spiritual reality that they were actually small pieces of something larger, that they were being built together to offer hope to the world and to be a dwelling place for the living God.
It would have been profoundly easier and safer for them to conform to the cultural and religious norms of the day, to either deny Christ altogether or perhaps to live out their faith in secret, but Peter was writing to remind them of their hope in Christ and to prepare them for continued suffering, that it would be worth it in the end!
And there are Christians around the world TODAY that experience persecution for their faith. Open Doors, a mission organization supporting persecuted Christians reports that in 2021:
- 1 in 7 Christians worldwide experience persecution. - 360 million christians are living in places where they experience a high degree of persecution and discrimination.
- In 2021, Nearly 6k were killed for their faith, over 5k churches attacked, nearly 5k detained without trial - And though there are 50 countries on a watch list where there's high levels of persecution, places like North Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya, Yemen and Nigeria are atop the list.
(And of course through our Partners at World Relief, we are supporting refugee resettlement especially from places like Afghanistan where since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban one year ago this week, Christians and women and girls in particular experience persecution)
There are many reasons for this persecution and certainly the scattered Christians Peter was first writing to, who were themselves experiencing suffering at the hands of the Emperor Nero, would understand many of these reasons:
- authoritarian governments who view christianity as a threat to power
- suspicion of anything outside the majority cultural faith (In fact the first christians were considered atheists because they didn’t believe in Rome’s pantheon of gods)
- And a final reason for persecution I’ll note is that, increasingly, religious freedom is a disrespected human right.
So it’s important as we talk about suffering and overlay our experiences onto Peter’s writings that we understand the level of persecution those he was writing to experienced and the level that exists in the worldwide church today. God is with all believers in their suffering but we need to put ours into perspective.
For all of us who follow Jesus though, the real point is this:
Following Jesus doesn’t promise us a life free from suffering but does invite us into redemptive responses to suffering that produce hope and blessing. Peter offers three we will look at today:
Remember…Repay… Rejoice!
So join me in prayer as we ask God to reveal himself to us today.
(Pray)
I’ve titled this message today “Turn it Around!” because it speaks to this idea that there are better, or redemptive, (to use a nice christian word) responses to suffering. That sometimes, or often if you are me, we find ourselves in a situation where we have a choice to make things better or worse, to escalate or de-escalate, to choose life or death, hope or despair, violence or healing, to tear it down or build it up!
Now this happens in big ways and small ways, in life and death situations or like, in traffic…
(Tell the “brake check” story)
Transition: And I’ll tell you in about 3 seconds after these escalations in emotion, my body is shouting at me, TURN IT AROUND BRO! We were on our way to Coldstone. Imagine being angry eating Coldstone! Can you be angry eating ice cream?! The kids had never been, it was 85 degrees outside! I wanted them to remember their favorite mix-ins, not dad’s road rage on the way there.
I apologized. I turned it around, but you know what, we got there and Coldstone was closed. Equipment failure. Sign on the door. We looked in the window and could see the ice cream melting. A single tear fell. But we turned it around. And ended up at Costco…churros and ice cream sundaes.
And of course, this was not suffering, it’s definitely not persecution, it was barely a setback…but this idea of responding redemptively to opposition and struggle applies whether we are talking about traffic or what believers are suffering in places like North Korea and Afghanistan.
Transition: Maybe you’ve heard of Stoicism, it’s this school of philosophy from the 3rd century…it’s having a resurgence these days thanks to writers like Ryan Holiday interpreting the writings of Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Seneca.
At the most basic level, the stoics believe it’s not what happens that is important but how we respond to what happens. We don’t control the outside world, but we control what we do in reaction to the outside world. We control how we rise to face obstacles, we decide what we make of the opportunities that life throws at us. We don’t control what happens, we control how we respond.
And Peter’s letter affirms that suffering is going to come, and invites us to better, more redemptive responses. So let’s look at the first. When trouble comes, we need to remember.
Remember
There are spiritual realities to our lives that are hard to see or easy to lose sight of because this life is hard, it’s in your face at times. The constant bombardment of darkness and sadness and death in the world makes it hard to
remember the true order of things.
If you missed it, Richard talked about this 2 weeks ago in our intro sermon, we are living in this overlap of the “already and the not yet” and this life feels like a struggle; societally, in our families, in our bodies, at the gas pump and the grocery store…and it’s vital that we gather together each week to remember…
to find our true north again, to see through the veil of this world to the world God is building. We need to unwind some of the tangling with the values of the world and remember who we are, whose we are, and the call we’ve been given as God’s children. It’s a tall order but there’s three things Peter invites us to remember:
Turn to 1 Peter 3 with me or follow along on the screen, let’s read 3:8 together aloud:
Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.
And this is our first fill in the blank if you’re taking notes in your bulletin:
Remember…The one mind. (pause) Like-minded actually means having the same mind and Peter is referring to the mind of Christ here. (1 Cor 2:16 says we, the church by the Spirit have been given the mind of Christ)
And I want us to understand that being like minded, and the unity that comes from that, isn’t uniformity but rather cooperation in the midst of diversity. We might think differently but we share the same mission. We are inviting people to God, community and wholeness and when we divide over lesser things we can’t do that.
Don’t take the bait, when you encounter disagreement in the church, turn it around, lean in, be curious and seek the mind of Christ. We think and feel and see things differently but the mind of Christ enables us to align around the same goals, our shared mission.
And part of how we have the same mind is by studying God’s word together like we’re doing now, because God’s word is where the mind of Christ is revealed. This is also important because we’re a body and in a body there is both diversity and cooperation but each part submits to the mind, telling us what to do or not do.
Another way to say this is that Christians should be like a good choir. Each one sings with their own voice and some sing different parts, but everyone sings to the same music and in harmony with one another. (so, join the choir, email Pat Collins)
And this brings us to our next fill in the blank. Remember…the spiritual house. If you were with us last week you’ll remember Pastor Scott’s story about the brick builders in the cathedral. God is building a spiritual house and you’re a part of it. Listen to 1 Peter 2:4-5:
4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
None of us are free agents. It’s really valued and easier in the western world that if you don’t like it, change the channel, encounter a difference with a person or group of people or organization? Just leave. Curate something new in your own image. No! The brick or stone of your life belongs in the house of God not off on its own.
And sometimes we separate ourselves because we’re hurting or struggling and are embarrassed so we want to withdraw and clean ourselves up before we come back. I think it was Brennan Manning who said the church is not a museum for saints but a hospital for sinners. So when you encounter suffering and struggle, remember the spiritual house. You belong in your broken state, this is a place to heal. And You have a part to play even in the midst of your struggles.
Transition: And the third thing we want to remember is in V9. Let’s read 3:9 together aloud:
Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.
We’ll look at the first part of that verse next, but our next fill in the blank is at the end there. Remember the calling and the blessing. Peter is referring back to ch1 where he reminded these scattered Christians that they have been given new birth into a living hope, and given an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.
We can be confident in the midst of suffering that God is going to meet our needs, our cup won’t run out so we can absorb and endure suffering and release it back into the world as a blessing. We have an inheritance coming, it’s not over.
Frederick Buechner, the beloved pastor and author who passed away this week at the age of 96, put it this way:
Resurrection means that the worst thing is never the last thing. - Frederick Buechner
It’s like how we sing that the story isn’t over if the story isn’t good. This is our great hope. We can hang on, having confidence in the end of the story. And while we wait, We can’t control what happens but we can control how we respond to it by remembering what’s true.
Transition: As we move to our next point, perhaps You’ve heard the saying, “hurt people, hurt people”? That so many of us out of our woundedness, wound others. This is so true in my experience and we must pay attention to this in our lives as followers of Jesus.
The stones in the house of God don’t throw themselves at people, instead they remain in order to offer blessing. The church is the house of God, and a home for the world, God’s dwelling place and a place of refuge for all people.
Our calling then is to consistently and sacrificially absorb suffering and release it back into the world as blessing. Peter is inviting us to repay evil with blessing.
Repay
And that is our next fill in the blank, Repay…Evil with blessing. We just read it in V9:
Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing,
The natural response to hostility is retaliation. This is part of what the terrible ethnic conflicts all over the world are about – one group wrongs another, and dedicates the rest of its existence to repaying that wrong. But only the love of Jesus for our enemies can break the cycle.
And of course this happens on a grand scale leading to things like ethnic cleansing and genocide but it begins in small ways, in each of our hearts and we need to turn it around and repay evil with blessing. Perhaps remember that hurt people hurt people and stop and think how they got to that point or how we got to that point? Again, from Frederick Buechner:
Snobs are people who look down on other people, but that does not justify our looking down on them. Who can say what dark fears of being inferior lurk behind their superior airs or what they suffer in private for the slights they dish out in public? - Frederick Buechner
One of the concerns I have with the modern church is that we often hate the people we’re called to save. We walk around with an axe to grind against “them” or “those people” whoever “they” are to us. I don’t even need to give a list because I bet you just made one in your head :)
This is Jonah and Ninevah. “You want me to go and preach to Them? Those people?” Nope. He ran the other direction and God turned it around and used Jonah to save the very people he hated.
We do well to learn from this example. Jesus is inviting us to repay evil with blessing. But we’re like, how about I bless those I have more in common with? Oh, are we even telling them about Jesus?!
Jesus reminded us that it is no great credit if we love those who love us in return; the real test of love is to demonstrate compassion to our enemies. Listen to Jesus’ words in the sermon on the mount:
But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? - Matthew 5:44-47
So, we’re to repay evil with blessing. Hard as it can be, Peter reminds us it’s our call. (pause)
As we continue, There’s another redemptive response for us, another repayment of sorts. Look at chapter 3:14-15 with me. Peter says:
But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord.
This is our next fill in the blank. Repay fear of people with fear of the Lord…
You see, fear of the Lord, reverence for God’s holiness and power and position allows us to conquer every other fear because it says God is sovereign over my life and justice will come. Here’s an example:
Remember the story of Joseph in Genesis. His brothers hated him because of his position in the family and sold him into slavery and then a bunch of other stuff happens and Joseph is back and then their father Jacob dies and
the brothers get a little nervous that now that dad is gone and Joseph is in charge, perhaps he will repay them for their evil, (listen to Genesis 50)...
But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.
Joseph repaid evil with blessing by exchanging fear of people with fear of the Lord.
He said Look, God is working good here even in this evil and his redemptive response sowed more hope into the world…even in his own family, which is often the hardest place. He stopped the cycle by changing his reaction.
Victor Frankl once said:
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. -Victor Frankl
When we keep God in the driver’s seat, in the place of Judge and as the creator of justice we are able to join him in his redemptive work…and we do that in humility by submitting to Him in reverence and fear and being the change needed, choosing life and hope instead of fear.
And God has a bigger view, there’s a whole “If you give a mouse a cookie” in Joseph’s story, leading to our own redemption, watch this:
- if Joseph’s brothers never sold him to the Midianites, then Joseph would never have gone to Egypt.
- If Joseph never went to Egypt, he would never have been sold to Potiphar.
- If Joseph was never sold to Potiphar, Potiphar’s wife would never have falsely accused him of rape.
- If Potiphar’s wife never falsely accused Joseph of rape, then Joseph would never have been put in prison.
- If Joseph was never put in prison, he would have never met the baker and butler of Pharaoh.
- If Joseph never met the baker and butler of Pharaoh, he would have never interpreted their dreams.
- If Joseph never interpreted their dreams, he would have never interpreted Pharaoh’s dream.
- If Joseph never interpreted Pharaoh’s dream, he never would have become prime minister, second in Egypt only to Pharaoh.
- If Joseph never became prime minister, he never would have wisely prepared for the terrible famine to come.
- If Joseph never wisely prepared for the terrible famine, then his family back in Canaan would have died in the famine.
- If Joseph’s family back in Canaan died in the famine, then the Messiah could not have come from a dead family.
- If the Messiah did not come forth, then Jesus never came.
- If Jesus never came, then we are all dead in our sins and without hope in this world!
Friends, God’s plans are beautiful, the way he turns what was meant for evil into good, is beautiful. We can put our hope in Him.
And lastly we Repay the question with an answer for our hope. Look at the rest of 3:15 with me:
But in your hearts revere 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. But do this with gentleness and respect,
People around us are looking at our lives and are curious why we believe. Why follow Jesus? Why go to church? Sometimes we get the question directly and get to speak to why. Each of us should be ready. Now we don’t need to have every answer theologically or everything tied up neatly in our belief system, but with humility and gentleness we should be ready to say I stand with Christ because…
again we do this out of fear and reverence for God, not fear that we’re gonna look stupid or worse be attacked or killed for our faith, rather we do it because we want to invite and inspire faith in the questioner. We don’t have time today, but Peter does this several times in the book of Acts chapters 2 through 5. Go there sometime this week and see Peter giving a gentle reason for this faith over and over.
Like Peter, we can do this by knowing the word of God, knowing God in prayer, having faith in the end of the story and seeing beyond the struggle of the moment to the opportunity to share faith with a friend or an enemy.
And finally, we Rejoice! Listen to 4:12-13 with me:
Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
Rejoice
This is our next fill in the blank, we’re almost done. Rejoice! In shared sufferings. Peter knew suffering was going to continue and wanted the church to prepare but more so wanted to affirm again that suffering wasn’t a bug, it was a feature, it’s a part of the Christian life, as modeled by Jesus…and in the hard to understand upside down kingdom, sharing in the sufferings of Christ is a cause for joy.
And to be clear, Joy doesn’t mean like “happy exuberance” all the time. Pastor Rich Villodas shared online this week that the same Bible that says “Rejoice always” also has a book called Lamentations. We can lament and have joy in our circumstances. Two things can be true at the same time. We don’t have to choose one from the other.
But we too often think that suffering is a sign that God has left us, that’s there’s some glitch in the Matrix and its time to cut our losses and find another god, and Peter is saying
“change your mindset to expect trials” and see them as cracks in our lives where the light gets in…
and then we can experience God’s glory and joy. I’m not saying it’s easy, but it is the Christian life.
Peter once told Jesus to avoid the suffering of the cross. Listen to Mark 8 (Mark 8:31-33).
He (Jesus) then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
One theologian put it this way: “Once it seemed strange to the Apostle Peter that his Master should think of suffering. Now he thinks it strange that He could have imagined anything else.” (Meyer)
It’s a great mystery of our faith, but suffering is central to the Christian Life. Jesus suffered on our behalf, defeating sin and death and it’s a joy to share in his sufferings. And
this again reminds us, that in our pain and trials and suffering, we-are-not-alone.
That’s our last fill in here, Rejoice! You are not alone.
I’m so glad you’re here today, so glad we get to do this together. Each of you has a unique story, a place in the house of God where your gifts are needed and intended to be shared…and I know so many of us are in a tough spot, but God is with us, he is near, he is shaping us, he is inviting us to hold on, to continue to remember, repay and rejoice because of the riches, this inheritance, we have in Christ, this living hope, to be revealed to us fully in God’s timing.
CLOSING
I wrote a song over the past weeks as I’ve been thinking about this message and as I’ve been sharing in some of the pain and stories in our congregation. There’s been a lot of loss lately in our community: deaths of loved ones -
babies, grandparents, sisters, deaths of dreams and relationships…
And there’s also been incredible stories of God’s kingdom breaking in. Just Recently at KSA and in our Middle School Camp, in Nicaragua and out on Aurora and across the street at Bagley. Lament and Joy at the same time, hope right in the middle of our struggles. How will we respond? Will we react in hurt and anger or by disengaging or will we respond redemptively with an answer for our hope?
As we close, Here’s my answer to the hope that we have. This song is called Kingdom Come.
Kingdom Come
The Lord is near to the broken-hearted
He walks with us down every road
But pain is a blindfold
So we Find every pothole
And all the trouble,
it makes us feel…
alone
But (so) we declare your goodness
And we will sing your promise
Until the day you mend these broken bones
And we will hold to your witness
And we’ll believe you are with us
Until the day we see your kingdom come
Lord let your kingdom come
And when we walk through the darkest valley,
His light will be our guide
And when we’re lost, He leaves the 90
To bring us back to life
Oh you bring us back to life
Lord let your kingdom come
We’ve waited for so long
O let your Kingdom come
We’ve waited for so long
BENEDICTION
1 Peter 4:8-11
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.