Witnessing While We Wander

Book of first Peter. And so I want to invite you to take your Bibles and turn to me the one Peter chapter three, and we're going to be looking at verses 13 through 17 this morning, and this is really the very heart of this letter, the center point of the letter, really central to the theme of the letter. In fact, this is the passage that I have been looking forward to the most to preach ever since we started our study of this book one Peter chapter three, starting in verse 13. Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good, but even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed and do not fear their intimidation and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you yet with gentleness and reverence and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. For it is better if God should, will it sow that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong.

Father, we come to you acknowledging your spirit as the author of these words and the one who can enlighten us to understand what you meant when you had Peter write these words and also to enable us to put them into practice, to live them out in our lives. And so Holy Spirit, we ask that you would accomplish your work in our lives for your glory, making us more like Jesus. We pray this in his name. Amen. Well, the apostle Peter is remembered for a lot of things, but perhaps the one thing that comes to most of our minds whenever we think of Peter is the time when he denied Christ. Not just once, not just twice, but three times.

All four gospel writers included this sad, shameful moment in Peter's life. It happened less than 24 hours before Jesus was crucified. Jesus had just been arrested in the garden of Gethsemane and hauled off to stand trial before the high priest. All the other disciples had fled the scene, but Peter followed from a distance and entered the courtyard of the high priest's house where he tried to remain incognito as he warmed himself by the fire alongside the Roman soldiers who had taken Jesus into custody. To his chagrin, several people recognized him as one of Jesus's followers and each in turn called him out.

And each time he claimed that he didn't even know Jesus and went so far as to pronounce a curse on himself that God would kill him if he was lying. And that moment he heard the shrill crow of the rooster, his conscience was instantly pricked and he went away into the night and wept bitterly. What's so ironic is just hours earlier he had boldly declared that he would never fall away from Jesus no matter what happened, no matter what anybody else did. But as he huddled around that fire fearing for his life, his heart's commitment to Christ was wavering and he was unwilling to suffer with Christ, all of which made him unprepared to be a witness for Christ.

Perhaps it was this experience of being caught off guard and failing to be bold and primed and ready to share Christ. Maybe this was on his mind when Peter Penn these verses, we know that he wrote this letter from Rome where he was observing how the persecution of Christians was intensifying in the capital city and he knew it was only a matter of time before it spread throughout the entire Roman empire. And so he wanted to help his readers for the coming storm to prepare for that coming storm so they wouldn't be caught off guard, but be ready and equipped to stand firm amid suffering in a world that was becoming increasingly hostile to Christians and Christianity in general. But Peter's message was not for them. As I've been saying here for months now, not to hunker down, huddle up, hide out, but to capitalize on and take advantage of the God ordained opportunity to be a witness for Christ, the darker the clouds, the brighter the light of Christ shines.

And Peter knew that the more persecution increased, the more chances Christians would have to share the gospel. And so we weave throughout this letter about standing firm in the midst of suffering an evangelistic strategy for winning over a watching world by living our lives in such a way that unbelievers are either silenced, shamed, or eventually hopefully saved. We've already seen this in chapter verse nine where Peter writes, but you are a chosen race, a royal priest at a holy nation, people for God's own possession so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Verse 12, keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles. So in the thing in which they slander you as evil doers, they may because of your good deeds as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. And then he applies this principle of winning people over by your behavior to a wife's role in the home. Chapter three verse one. In the same way you wives be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be one without a word by the behavior of their wives as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior.

Well, today we have come to the text that most clearly reveals this underlying theme of what we've been calling exile evangelism. And in these five verses, Peter zeroed in on the subject, he's been hinting at so far in this letter and he'll stay focused on it for the remainder of the letter. If you remember from last week, Peter was summarizing here in verse eight, he said, to sum up all of you, so he was expanding his instruction and exhortation beyond citizens and slaves and wives and husbands to include all Christians. And he began there in verses eight through 12 to show us how we should relate to and interact with those inside the church. How do we get along with fellow believers? Now in verses 13 to 17, he shows us how we should relate to and interact with those outside the church. How should we relate to unbelievers?

And in this text, what I want you to see with me this morning is seven necessities for being a fearless, winsome, effective witness for Christ in a lost and dying world that is growing more and more antagonistic to the gospel which they so desperately need to hear. So seven necessities for being a fearless, winsome effective witness for Christ. Number one, we need to consider ourselves blessed to suffer for Christ. We need to consider ourselves blessed to suffer for Christ. Look at verse 13, Peter says, who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? This was a rhetorical question that Peter posed based on the passage from Psalm 34 that he had just quoted in verses 10 through 12. Again, let me remind what it says. The one who desires life to love and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit.

He must turn away from evil and do good. He must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears attend to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. In other words, the secret to the good life is to live a good life. And he goes on here in verse 13 to assume here that when we turn away from evil and we do good, we can have the confidence that God's eyes are always upon us, God's ears are always open to us. And so we have nothing to fear Romans 8 31, if God is for us, who's against us? Proverbs 16, seven, when a man's ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies be at peace with him. Romans 13, three for rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior but for evil.

Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you'll have praise from the same. Even here in this letter in chapter two, verse 14, Paul reminds us, or excuse me, Peter reminds us here that governors are sent by God for the punishment of evil doers and the praise of those who do right. So under normal circumstances when we seek to please the Lord with our lives by doing the right thing and honoring the king and honoring everyone else, we should assume no harm will come to us. However, living a holy and righteous life doesn't make us immune from suffering at the hands of evil people who are inclined to call evil good and good evil. And sometimes the way those of us who believe in Christ live our lives elicits a negative reaction from those who reject Christ.

I mean, look at our Lord and Savior Jesus who lived a perfect life. He never did anything wrong. He only and always did what was right and the world ended up killing him. And ever since then, his followers have been the target of his enemies who have sought to harm Christians and destroy Christ's church. Edmund Clowny, one of my go-to commentators as we've gone through this book of one, Peter said this quote, Peter writes at the outset of centuries of persecution that the Church of Christ has endured a chronicle that is still being written today in the labor camps and prisons of a world that rejects the gospel.

So Peter says, who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good, but even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. The word suffer there or suffering is repeated more in this letter than in any other word some 15 times also more often than in any other book in the New Testament. And from here to the end of the letter, Peter explained how we as believers should respond or deal with unpleasant, hurtful experiences that he refers to as suffering. And the first thing he wanted to make very clear is that suffering is not the opposite of blessing. It's not like you have blessing and then you have suffering. No, he wants us to know that suffering is blessing and it sounds to me like Peter was reminding us here of the words that he heard with his own ears come out of the mouth of Christ on the sermon or in the sermon on the Mount Matthew chapter five, verse 10, Jesus said, blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you and people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. In other words, you're in good company if you're being persecuted for Christ. Now the word blessed means not just happy, but it means privileged, honored. In other words, it's a unique privilege and honor to serve or excuse me, to suffer for the sake of Christ.

Paul experienced the blessings of God's all sufficient grace, his sustaining power in the midst of the suffering he endured. Two Corinthians chapter 12, verse 10, he says, I'm well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ's sake. For when I'm weak, then I am strong. So we too need to consider ourselves blessed whenever we get to suffer for Christ's sake. So first of all, we need to consider ourselves blessed whenever we get to suffer for Christ's sake. Number two, we need to fear God, not men. If we want to be a fearless, winsome, effective witness for Christ, we need to fear God, not men. Look at the end of verse 14, but even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed and do not fear their intimidation and do not be troubled, which that phrase I would assume is set apart in your Bible by italics or capital letters, which is just indicating that Peter is quoting from the Old Testament.

He's actually quoting Isaiah chapter eight, verse 12, where God was speaking to King Ahaz and the nation of Judah who were being threatened by an ins Syrian and evasion and the Assyrians were brutal. And so the nation of Judah was, they were shaken in their boots and so God wanted them to know, Hey, don't be afraid, don't be intimidated, don't be troubled. And Peter applied God's words to the nation of Judah, to Christians here in the gospel age, the word fear there is FBOs from which we get our word phobia, which represents all the things that people are afraid of and avoid or run away from like snakes or spiders or heights or bridges or enclosed spaces or needles or you fill in your blank, the blank of your phobia. Peter's point was this, don't run away and hide when you're called to suffer for Christ or you'll miss the chance to be a witness for Christ.

If we were to survey this group this morning and asked everyone the question, what are the main reasons why we avoid sharing the gospel with others? Survey would say, number one answer I bet would be what? Fear. Fear. I think that's why we avoid sharing Christ with others. We're scared of what they will think of us or how they will treat us. And Peter was saying, don't be intimidated by unbelievers or feel threatened by them. And listen, we've got it easy here in America. I think you know that because there are hundreds of thousands of Christians, our brothers and sisters in Christ all over the world who live in places where they face regular threats of losing their property, being exiled, being locked in prison, even killed if they refuse to renounce their faith in Christ and the words of Christ himself should be a comfort and encouragement to them and to us. Matthew chapter 10, verse 28, Jesus said, do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body and hell. In other words, we are to fear God rather than men. And when we truly fear God, we won't fear men.

I think Peter had in mind having just referenced Isaiah chapter eight, verse 12, verse 13. He was familiar with that whole section, but Isaiah eight 13 says this, it is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy and he shall be your fear and he shall be your dread. So God was saying, listen, I don't want you to fear the Assyrians. I want you to fear me. Fearing God conquers every other fear in our lives. I mean besides what's the worst someone can do to you? Kill you. You just got a one way ticket into the presence of Jesus. I, Psalm 56, 4, in God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me? So we need to fear God and not men.

Thirdly, if we want to be a fearless, winsome, effective witness for Christ, we need to keep Christ preeminent in our lives. We need to keep Christ preeminent in our lives. Verse 15, he says, but sanctify or set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts. To sanctify again means to set something apart. It means to make something holy. Well, how are we to make Christ holy? He already is holy. We can't make him holy, but we can regard him or recognize him as holy again. Clowny says this, when the Lord sanctifies us, he makes us holy. When we sanctify the Lord, we set him apart as the holy one, which is what Isaiah eight 13 says. It is the Lord of hosts whom you should regard as holy.

And those of you that may have started using the LSB, that legacy standard Bible that emphasizes the word Yahweh in the Old Testament and translates Lord instead of Lord a translate it Yahweh. Well, this word Lord here in one Peter three 15 is the Greek equivalent of the Old Testament named for God, Yahweh. And so what Peter was saying here is that the Lord God almighty of the Old Testament is the Lord Jesus Christ of the New Testament. We know this to be true. There's many references to the deity of Christ throughout the New Testament. John one says, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father full of grace and truth. John 10 30, Jesus said, I and the Father are one.

Colossians two, nine says in him all the fullness of Dede dwells in bodily form talking about Christ. In fact, turn back to Colossians just for a second, just a few pages to the left there. Colossians chapter one, verse 15. The purpose of Paul writing this letter to the Colossians was to really exalt the supremacy and the sufficiency of Christ. And so he exalts Christ here in the first chapter, verse 15, he says, he's the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created both in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. So he attributes creation to Jesus. God, he is before all things and in him all things hold together. He's controlling all things. He also is the head of the body, the church, and he's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead so that he himself will come to have first place in everything. That's the so what by the way of the deity of Christ so that he himself will come to have first place in everything. In other words, when we understand who Jesus really is, we should honor and revere him as the sovereign ruler of the universe and the sovereign master of our lives.

You say, what does that look like practically? Well, he must reign supreme on the throne of our hearts. He must have dominion over every area of our lives. Christ must have first place in our lives above everyone and everything else. No one or nothing can become more important to us than Jesus Christ. He must be our greatest treasure, our supreme passion, our highest priority, our ultimate pursuit. We must be totally committed to him. We must be fully devoted to following and obeying him. We must be fully submitted to him. We must be completely dedicated to pleasing and glorifying him with our lives. Simply put, Paul said it well in Colossians three, he said, Christ is our life.

Is that true of you? Can you say that Christ is my life. Christ is everything to me. That's what my life's all about. And see, when Christ is our life, he's at the forefront of our lives and if he's in the forefront of our lives, he'll be in the forefront of our minds and if he's in the forefront of our minds, he'll be in the forefront of our conversations. And so it will be normal and natural to talk about Jesus with everyone, and that's what happens when you keep Christ preeminent in your life. So if you want to be a fearless, winsome effective witness for Christ, you need to keep Christ preeminent our lives. But also you need to be prepared to share the gospel. You need to be prepared to share the gospel. Notice the second part of verse 15. He says, sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you.

That word defense, there is the word Apollo Gia, where we get our word apology. Now, Peter wasn't implying that we needed to apologize to others for being a Christian. I'm really sorry if my life offends you or convicts you. That's not what he's saying here. The other word that we get from this word Apollo, GIA is our word apologetics and apologetics, if you're not familiar with that word, is the branch of theology that deals with how to defend the Christian faith. And I don't have time to get into the many layers involved in the subject of apologetics this morning, but suffice it to say there are basically two approaches to defending the Christian faith. There is what's called the rational evidential approach, and there's what's referred to as the presuppositional approach that the former attempts to reason with unbelievers by providing them with logical arguments for the existence of God along with scientific evidence and historical archeological data to prove that the Bible is true and that Jesus really lived and died and rose again in the latter presupposes based on what the Bible teaches, that unbelievers already know that God exists and they're simply suppressing that truth and there's no need to argue about that or debate about that, but we need to simply reason with them from the scriptures that they need to turn away from their sin and place their faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation.

I mean, hey, if you want to take the rational evidential approach, have at it, but you're going to have to know a whole lot because there's a lot to learn when it comes to all that stuff. And oftentimes unbelievers will simply take all that data that you provide them, reinterpret it, and then tie you up into knots. Basically you came onto their side and you're playing on their field with their rules as opposed to being a presuppositionalist where guess what? The only thing you have to know is this right here. You just have to know the Bible and you just have to share it with 'em and quote it to 'em and read it to 'em and challenge them to consider what the scripture says.

If you're interested in going a little deeper in this subject of apologetics, I would recommend you find the sermon I preached called evangelism God's Way. A few years ago, I think it was March, 2019, there was a two-part sermon I did evangelism God's Way where I kind of unpacked this whole idea of presuppositional apologetics, and I think it would be helpful for some of you to listen to, but this word Apollo Gia is used in scripture to describe a formal defense of Christianity given before a judge like Paul was required to do oftentimes in the Book of Acts to the Jewish mob in chapter 22 to the St. He and chapter 23 and to Governor Felix in chapter 24 to his successor Festus in chapter 25 and to King Agrippa in chapter 26, I think Paul was referring to one of these defenses in two Timothy chapter four, verse 16. He said, at my first defense, no one supported me but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them, but the Lord stood with me and strengthened me so that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished and that all the Gentiles might hear and I was rescued out of the lion's mouth.

Great source of encouragement and hope for those that are out sharing the gospel, remembering that the Lord is with you the entire time. But apology is not just used to describe a formal defense but also an informal defense of Christianity. In other words, we're just able to answer those who question us about what it means to be a Christian. Philippians one 16, Paul simply said, I'm appointed for the defense of the gospel. And guess what? So I, we've all been appointed by God to proclaim and defend the gospel to family members, to friends, to neighbors, to coworkers, to classmates in the ordinary everyday conversations of life.

And people often ask questions or they make statements that naturally open the door to talk to them about the things of the Lord. And so we need to always be ready and willing to seize these divine appointments, if you will, to share the good news of salvation in Christ, which means we need to know what we believe and why we believe it, and be able to remove any misconceptions that people might have about being a Christian or answer any objections they might have in regards to Christianity. And so the question is, when you are asked questions about the Christian faith, are you able to answer them? Are you always praying and looking for opportunities to share the gospel to others? Or maybe this question, are you living your life in such a way that unbelievers are intrigued enough to inquire why you believe and live the way you do?

They might say it this way, but they're thinking, what planet is this guy from? She's strange. I don't understand her. She's different. Something's different about them. In fact, chapter four, verse four, four talks about this in describing all of the sinful pleasures of the world and what unbelievers spend their time doing. In verse four of chapter four, he says, in all this, unbelievers are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation and they malign you. It's surprising your coworkers, guys, they don't get it when you get off work and they all go to the place they go to after work and you say, Hey guys, I'm out. And you go back to the hotel room and call your wife. You're like, what's up with that guy? I don't get that. Or ladies, you're maybe hanging out in some kind of playgroup and the conversation turns to gossip and it becomes this gossip fest in session and you very quietly and respectfully just get up and leave. They're like, well, what's up with her? Why wasn't she? I mean, this was some juicy stuff. Why? Why'd she get up and leave? That's strange.

If you haven't figured it out yet, the implication in this book is unbelievers notice something different about you and they want to know what it is, particularly the peaceful, joyful confidence that you have, even though you live in the same crazy, messed up, uncertain world that they do and experience all the same difficulties and trials and difficulties that they do, but with an other worldly hope like Francis of Assisi said, preach the gospel at all times. Use words if necessary. That's not a cop out to say, well, I'm just going to wait for people to ask me. I don't need to engage in gospel conversations. No. The point is, when we live hope-filled lives, people will notice and they will perhaps initiate conversations and we won't necessarily have to figure out some creative way to bring up the gospel. They'll bring it up.

I mean, that's just the way humans interact. I mean, when you notice something different about someone, maybe a change in how they look, you typically ask them, Hey, it looks like you've lost weight. What are you doing? And they say, well, I'm doing this diet or I'm working out doing this thing. Or Guys don't do this, but girls do that. They're like, something looks different about you, and they're trying to figure it out. If guys did that with each other, somebody's getting punched out. But girls are like, yeah, oh, I got my hair done. Yeah, I got a new hairdo and I, oh, where did you get it done? And you start talking about your hairstylist. I mean, that's just what we do as human beings. So what should make us stand out in this world and look different is not our hair or our weight necessarily. It's the hope that we have in Christ, which is what unbelievers lack. Ephesians chapter two verse 12, it says that unbelievers are without God and without hope in this world.

And you may remember from the very beginning of this letter, Peter has been emphasizing this living hope that we as believers get to enjoy chapter one verse three, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy, has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away reserved in heaven for you. Verse 13, he says, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

In verse 21, he says that through Christ, we are believers in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God. This hope, by the way, is not wishful thinking like, well, I sure hope I I make it to heaven. I sure hope this is right. I sure hope I haven't missed this, that I didn't get this wrong. No, this is being absolutely convinced that based on our faith in Christ death and resurrection, we will escape hell and we will spend eternity in heaven. I'm convinced of that. I'm a hundred percent convinced of that.

And to some of you that might sound arrogant, that may sound presumptuous, but if you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you should be as confident because it's not about you. It's not about me. It's about the Bible. And what does the Bible say that Jesus did so that we could have the confidence that we would escape the wrath of God and be welcomed into heaven for all eternity. So we need to be prepared to share our hope in the gospel. Well, there's more. Number five, if we want to be I a fearless, winsome effective witness for Christ, we need to share Christ like Christ. We need to share Christ like Christ. Notice the last phrase there in verse 15, but saying goodbye Christ is Lord, in your hearts always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence. Listen, sometimes when God provides us opportunities to share the gospel, things can get pretty heated. People can get aggressive, they can get antagonistic. Listen, I had a knife pulled on me when I was sharing the gospel one time.

People get angry, they become accusatory, and it's easy for us to get angry and defensive and respond in like manner. And their voice raises and our voices raise and their face turns red, our face turns red. And what Peter is saying, Hey, listen, that shouldn't be, we should never be arrogant or belligerent or condescending. When we share Christ with others, we should never come across like a self-righteous, judgmental. I mean, that's a major turnoff for unbelievers when we kind of look down our noses at them as if they're ignorant. Don't try to ram the truth down someone's throat. The Bible says we need to speak the truth and love. We need to be humble, kind, courteous, respectful, charitable like we learned last week.

Bottom line is when leading others to Christ, we need to be like Christ. Matthew chapter 11, verse 28, here is Jesus leading people to him or calling out for people to come follow him. He says, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you'll find rest for your souls. John one 14, John said that Jesus was full of, he could have said anything, fill in the blank. He picked two things. He said, full of grace and truth, full of grace and truth. Paul said it this way, two Corinthians 10, one, he said, I Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. And then of course, Paul's classic words to Timothy in two Timothy 2 24, the Lord's bond servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all able to teach patient when wronged with gentleness, correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance, leading them to the knowledge of the truth.

Bottom line is you could talk to you are blue in the face with someone and bring it, bring all the best arguments even if you're going the pre, pre quote, all the right verses. But listen, it's not up to you. Only God can lead someone to repentance. Only God can grant someone a desire to repent and believe. I'll never forget reading about an apologist who debated the well-known atheist, Madeline Murray O'Hare. Remember her. She was the one responsible for getting prayer taken out of public schools because she didn't want to have her son have to endure that religiosity in a public space. And so anyway, this man debated her. And during the debate, he brutally tore her up one side and down the other in a very cruel and a very cutting manner. And after the debate was over, some of the apologist friends suggested that he had been overly harsh towards her and perhaps had driven her farther away from the Lord. To which he replied, I didn't go there to save souls, but to destroy a heretic.

Ouch. That's like cringe-worthy, right? We must never forget that the goal when witnessing to others is not to win the argument, but to win their soul. I'll never forget a guy one time told me about his son who had a passion for apologetics and defending the Christian faith and sharing the gospel with everyone he could engage in conversation and he would come home and he would tell his dad the conversations he had had that day and the arguments that he'd gotten into and what he said and how the person responded. And one time after months of hearing this, his dad simply said, Hey, what was the name of the person that you had that conversation with today?

His point was he didn't know his name because he didn't really care about the person. He just cared about making his point. Someone said it this way. Christ likeness speaks more eloquently for Christianity than all the theology books ever written. Christlikeness speaks more eloquently for Christianity than all the theology books ever written. So we need to share Christ like Christ. Number six, if we want to be a fearless, winsome effective evangelist, we need to live a life of integrity. We need to live a life of integrity. Verse 16, and keep a good conscience in the thing in which you are slandered. Those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. The operative phrase, there is a good conscience. God has provided each one of us a conscience, which acts like an internal judge to help us discern what is right and wrong and when we're pleasing to him and when we're not pleasing him. You can read about it in Romans chapter two verses 14 and 15, and when we do what is wrong, our conscious accuses us. And when we do what is right, our conscious defends us. It either produces guilty feelings or feelings of innocence. And if you're doing something the Bible says you shouldn't do and you feel no guilt, you feel no remorse, then that's an indication that something is radically wrong with your conscience. Either you still have an evil conscience or you have a sullied conscience or you have a seared conscience.

Paul talked a lot about the importance of a good conscience, particularly to his young disciple Timothy, first Timothy chapter one, verse five, but the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience. In that same chapter, verse 19, he told Timothy to fight the good fight keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. And when he described the qualifications for deacons, he said they must hold to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. Paul was adamant about maintaining a good conscience himself. Just listen to what he said in Acts chapter 23, verse one. In his defense before the Sanhedrin, he said, brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day, acts 24 16. He said, I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men.

So when we maintain a good conscience, we know we are innocent of any wrongdoing. So the accusations of others don't matter to us. They don't scare us, they don't suppress us. They don't keep us silent. Instead, we are bold as a lion because we have nothing to fear. We don't fear of what others may know about us or say about us because we have nothing to hide if we don't have any secrets, that we don't have to go through life covering our tracks and always looking over our shoulder, waiting for wondering if the sins we've committed are about to catch up with us. We need to live blameless lives so that nothing we say or do will mar our testimony for Christ. And listen, unbelievers man, they're experts at picking out the hypocrisy in the lives of Christians and using that to justify their unbelief. And so we need to be men and women of integrity who are above reproach in the eyes of the watching world. And yet even so, the enemies of the gospel may still say all sorts of bad things about us and make all sorts of false accusations against us and come up with all sorts of schemes to discredit us.

But Peter says they'll eventually be put to shame because the truth will prevail either in this life, they'll perhaps see the truth. They'll come to Christ through the gracious response of us as we've responded to their attacks and we've just responded in kindness and love and grace. Or perhaps they will face shame in the future. Day of God's judgment. Philippians two 15 says it Well prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you appear as lights in the world. That's why we need to live a life of integrity. And then lastly, quickly, number seven, if you want to be a fearless, winsome, effective witness for Christ, expect to be persecuted, expect to be persecuted. Verse 17, for it is better if God should will it so that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong, which by the way is just a good summary of what he's already said in chapter two, verse 15, for such as the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.

Verse 19 of chapter two, for this finds favor for the sake of conscious or God. A person bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly for what credit is there. If when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience. But if when you do what is right and suffer for it, you patiently and patiently endure it. This finds favor with God. And by the way, get used to this because he is going to hit it again in chapter four, verse 12. Beloved, do not be surprised at the Fi ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing as though some strange thing were happening to you. But to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing so that also at the revelation of his glory, you may rejoice with exultation. Verse 15, make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer or a thief or evil doer or a trouble, some medler. But if anyone suffers as a Christian, he's not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name. And then 19, therefore those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful creator in doing what is right.

And by the way, exhibit A of this principle is Jesus himself. Verse 18 of chapter three, for Christ also died for sins once for all the just for the unjust. Jesus'. Unjust suffering was willed by God, and it was Jesus who said that we too would experience persecution just like him. John 15, 20, remember the word that I said to you? A slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they'll also persecute you. Paul said it this way, two Timothy three 12, indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. In other words, all these verses help us manage our expectations. And bottom line is we should expect to be persecuted.

We should expect to be persecuted. But as we submit to and trust in God's perfect will for our lives, which may include at times unjust suffering persecution, God grants us peace. He grants us courage. He grants us hope knowing that he is working all things together for good and for his glory, and that nothing can ever separate us from his love for us. So we need to expect to be persecuted. Listen, Peter knew of what he wrote here. He even though he was scared and unprepared, that regretful night in the courtyard of the high priest after Christ died and rose again from the dead. You remember this Christ restored Peter, recommissioned Peter. And from that point on, he was a fearless, winsome, effective witness for Christ. In fact, just weeks after he had missed that golden opportunity to give a defense of the hope that was in him, Peter was arrested himself just like Jesus had been for preaching about Jesus, and he had to stand trial before the same high priest who delivered Jesus over to be crucified.

And this time Peter was ready. He was bold, he was confident. Acts chapter five, verse 27. When they had brought them in, they stood them before the council. The high priest questioned them saying, we gave you strict orders not to continue teaching in the name of Jesus. And yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. But Peter and the apostles answered, we must obey God rather than men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging him on a cross. He is the one whom God exalted to his right hand as a prince and a savior to grant repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses of these things. And so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.

And the sin heater wasn't sure what to do. And Galio who was the old wise man said, Hey guys, listen, if these guys are just messing around, this thing will fade. If this is not of God, it's just going to fade away. Forget about 'em. But if they are of God, there's no way we're going to stop this thing. So they said, okay, you're probably right. They took his advice and after calling the apostles and they flogged them and order them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and then released them. So they went on their way from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for his name. And every day in the temple and from house to house, they kept right on teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.

That's what we should be doing every day, wherever we are teaching and preaching, that Jesus is the Christ. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the example of Peter who blew it big time, but then recovered, and by your grace was the comeback kid, and you gave him a second chance and he hit it out of the park for your glory. And so, Lord, help us to learn the lessons you want us to learn today so that we can be more fearless, more winsome, more effective as witnesses for Christ. We pray this in His name. Amen.